The Lust Arrow
by Zeraphie
Summary: A word of advice: When running into Cupid, the Archer of Love, restrain from insulting him. Otherwise, you'll end up just like Leo: angry, stuck in France with a broken warship, shot in the head with a Lust Arrow, and wanting nothing more than to get in the pants of Jason Grace. Not that there were hidden feelings before that. He'll swear on his life. Leo x Jason, Slash.
1. I: Jason

**Chapter I: **Jason

Watching the setting sun had been my favorite part of the day ever since I was nine years old. Back then, I'd been so busy training and doing what was needed for Camp Jupiter that nothing mattered but living up to my father's name and the title given to me. _Failure was not an option. Father would not allow it._ _That_ was the mantra knotted so tightly in my head.

Then one day for a brief moment, I wiped the sweat off my brow and looked up.

At the time, the sun illuminated in yellow streaks, passing about the sky and turning blue into orange. It glowed, hitting the clouds that shadowed the earth and always—_always_, I knew—if you looked close enough, you could see the purple painted at the edges, where the blue of the sky was making its final change.

That probably should have been our first hint, I joked. Where purple met orange.

When I first learned Jupiter was my father, I would think: when the sky was at peace, Jupiter was at peace too.

That was my thought of now, as I sat at the edge of the ship. My feet dangled, too short to touch the top of Festus's head. The gladius Hera presented me was sheathed and looped against my jeans.

Below the Argo II, stratus clouds stretched over the earth. Occasionally _aurae—_wind spirits—would giggle and wave. Some flushed with gray as I waved back, then scurried off, leaving a trail of water vapor in their wake. Stars blanketed the sky, becoming clearer as oranges, purples, and blues melted away.

I could watch for hours, just dangling my bare feet at the edge of the _Argo II_ and making out constellations. The air pressure made my ears tingle in a good way, despite the others, and the wind danced on the back of my neck.

Leo made it easy to stare off into the sky. He'd designated me the bunk with one of the only windows so I could wake up and see the sky first thing. My _duty_, according to Annabeth and the others, was to stay where I was now and act as a peacemaker to any "Airborne Spirits" that happened upon us.

"You ready for dinner?" Just then, the sound of Piper's voice tingled in my ears, overshadowing any of the other sounds that whistled in the sky. It cut through me immediately—caused me to remember where I was.

"Hey." Standing to my feet, I would have fallen over had Piper not caught me. I grimaced—sure, sitting here with my feet dangling at the edge of the ship all day was amazing. But at the same time, I spent the past twelve hours _dangling my feet_ in the troposphere, and my legs apparently forgot they had bones.

I'm a demigod of the wind. Not really your typical airbender with a flying bison.

Fortunately Piper pulled me back—like the string on the end of a toy airplane, which kept it from flying too far away. She placed a hand over my torso, the other on my bicep, and waited for me to regain the feeling in my feet. "You okay?"

"Yeah." Okay. Now I felt embarrassed. I was supposed to be child of the Lord of the Sky and I looked like an idiot. Luckily the moment I looked up into her eyes, Piper only grinned, and I forgot everything except my name.

Piper was beautiful. Under layers of choppy hair, she had a smile that could light up the night sky and eyes that shimmered like stars. As Apollo dragged away the last of his chariot, the last speckles of light bounced off her flawless face and evaporated. I could see her just fine—the metal of the ship glowed like a giant nightlight.

Unbeknownst to me, Piper still had a hand placed on my bicep. I hadn't noticed until she moved it a little—then I did the instinctive thing and jerked away. Oops.

At that gesture, she now looked surprised—a little hurt even. Crap, I hadn't meant to do _that—_

But instead of apologizing and awkwardly holding my arm out again, I forced a smile, creating just the tiniest bit of space between us. I was blushing—pleased she wanted to touch me and mortified I'd ruined such a perfectly good moment.

_Maybe_ if I saved the evening with a joke. Let it be said now that I _suck_ at joking.

"I think a wind spirit may have gone through my head," I mused. Rubbing the side of my head, I pressed a palm against my ear and made a face.

Fortunately, this relieved Piper of the look of concern and hurt from when I pulled away. She smiled a little too, relaxed for the both of us. "Should I be worried?"

"Only if I start talking like Coach Hedge." To that, we both laughed.

Instantly every stupid thought that ran through my mind went away. If you…haven't figured it out by now, then I guess I should tell you. I liked Piper. A lot, actually. I could stand where I was for ages, staring at her beneath the stars and knowing everything was perfect.

Now, I…I wanted nothing more than to take her by the hand and kiss her.

Yeah. Some son of the Lord of the Sky. As the thought passed through my head, I couldn't help but get queasy. Harpies with the wingspan of a plane were knotting the inside of my stomach.

Eventually the laughter died down. We shared a look, twin smiles pressed against our lips and eyes glued together like popsicle sticks at Arts & Crafts.

Piper took a step back, ducking under the light of the boat. She rubbed one of her braids, something cute she did whenever she wanted to say something and couldn't. A sheepish smile spread across her face. "We should get Leo."

"He's not making dinner tonight?"

She shook her head. "Hazel is. Which means…"

"Leo is glued to the Steering Wheel either navigating us across the Atlantic or playing Super Smash Bros.," I finished for her. Amusement fell in my tone. "You think he'll be dressed this time?"

"Guess we'll find out."

**xxx**

If you've ever seen Leo tinker with things, then you would understand why Piper and I were proud of him when he remembered to wear pants. Or a clean shirt—something that was clean for maybe ten minutes before he got doused in oil. Again.

He stood on a platform where the controls were a keyboard monitor, aviation controls from a jet, a dubstep soundboard, and matching wiimotes. From the looks of it, he managed to keep his shirt and jeans clean from the afternoon.

Everyone thought Leo was crazy for the design of the steering wheel. Piper and I knew it was just Leo being Leo.

As we dropped by to pick him up, we found out I was half-right: Leo was playing videogames with the wiimotes (and somehow still maintaining control over the ship), only with Percy was also at his side.

Along the way, Piper had grasped my hand, a shy smile on her face as we talked. Blushing, I hadn't protested. Now, I couldn't help but squeeze it with unease, a frown across my lips.

It wasn't that I didn't like Percy Jackson. Stepping on board with Hazel and her new boyfriend Frank in tow, with waves and salutes goodbye from the Twelfth Legion, Percy made it clear that he was _very _likeable. But I hated seeing how easily he'd replaced me in my group of friends. In my home, my _life._

The sentiment was shared, I'm sure—when we first met, Percy did a quick look over of me; some sort of emotion trickling in his demeanor, then said nothing. I'd done the same thing—we usually held our tongues around each other. Like I'd be doing right now. Leo was one friend I preferred to keep at my side.

Speaking of which, Leo made a noise, then jerked his shoulder into Percy's. "You've got the ball, you've got the ball!"

"Dude, you gotta suck me—no, not _him_—" Percy made a face, his fingers flying fast over the game console. "Don't suck _him_, suck _me_! I've got cooler moves!"

Leo hollered, frustration in his voice making his voice jump an octave. "Pikachu keeps getting in the way—" He shouted a few Spanish curses, then the wiimote rumbled in his fingers as Kirby died.

"I got your back, bro!"

"Avenge meeee!"

Head ping-ponging between the two of them, Piper and I exchanged looks. I couldn't tell whether I should laugh or just roll my eyes. Piper decided to do the last one. She smiled a little, hand squeezing mine back like I'd done it on purpose.

On the bright side, the game finally ended when Pikachu and Mario were thrown off Yoshi's Island. Both Percy and Leo _whoop_ed, high-fived, and burst into a fit of giggles. The last one wasn't an exaggeration—both of them _giggled_ like little girls when they won the game.

"I _told_ the Stoll brothers you and I could win against them." Leo smirked and jutted his chest out.

There was a look in Percy's eyes, affectionate and a little nervous as the name passed through him. Since the Stoll Brothers were the head councilors of the Hermes Cabin at Camp Halfblood, I assume he'd spoken to them a lot. Suddenly he grinned, matching Leo's stance. "Yeah. Only person you've gotta fear with this game is Annabeth."

"Oh—yeah. She got mad whenever I installed it. Thought I'd do the mortal thing or something by texting and driving." Leo snickered.

"No. She kicks ass as Zelda."

"_Really_? She looks like she hasn't had an inkling of fun since—" Leo stopped talking when Percy raised an eyebrow. Instead, he gave one of his goofy smiles to the Son of Poseidon and stuffed his hands in his pockets. "I mean…yeah."

"Oh, she's strict," Percy agreed, like he didn't care if Leo went on. "But she whooped my butt the first time I forced her to play it with me. Haven't been able to win against her since."

Of course that would be the one thing to catch Leo's attention. He loved videogames. "Seriously?"

"Definitely."

At that moment, Piper cleared her throat to get their attention. She moved her hand away from mine and arched an eyebrow. Leo and Percy blinked.

"You know we're missing dinner right now," she said slowly, "right?"

They looked at each other again.

"Oh," Leo said. "Yeah, I'm pretty hungry now. He patted his stomach and grinned. "Let's get some grub."

After Leo switched the boat to autopilot, he hopped off the platform and began a conversation with Piper. Percy followed his lead, much steadier as my friends started the walk toward the dining hall. He looked at me thoughtfully, green eyes narrowed to my form.

An awkward smile fumbled across his lips and he waved half-heartedly. "Hey."

"Hey," I said back. It hung in the air, and for the umpteenth time, he and I scrutinized each other. Percy was about a year older with dark hair and sea green eyes—I suppose that was only natural. We were about the same height, roughly the same build. That was where the similarities ended.

Suddenly his demeanor changed, and he stared at me oddly, lips contorted into a crooked smile. I had the urge to ask, but then I found myself the last of the bunch to lead the room.

We walked behind Piper and Leo in silence, hearing the twitchy son of Hephaestus babble about the mechanics of Super Smash Bros. and wondering if he could make a demigod version—_Super Smash Demigods. _Piper only smiled and nodded, adding suggestions when she could.

Somehow, the conversation got back to _me_.

"Of course, Jason would be just like Pikachu. He'd shock people and call down thunder to kill people." Leo grinned and turned an eye to me.

"Lightning," I corrected, then frowned when Percy said the exact same thing. On the other hand, it made me a little happy when Leo managed to throw me into the conversation.

Which…didn't last long. Leo turned around completely, his eyes skipping over me in favor of Percy. He gestured to Percy with an eager grin. "You'd be in it too. Duh."

Percy grinned. "Could I talk to horses?"

A look of disbelief crossed Leo's face and he gawked. "You have the powers to start earthquakes. You can call upon water, start mini-hurricanes, and all you wanna do is _talk to horses_?"

"They're entertaining."

"Whatever, dude."

That was when they were wrapped in their own little world again. I placed myself next to Piper as we edged closer to the kitchen, a wary look across my face. She didn't notice my lack of enthusiasm—instead smiling and distancing us a little from the pair. Somehow, the conversation turned a corner on blue foods.

"I'm glad he's found a friend." She looked over our shoulders with approval.

It only made my stomach twist. "I wouldn't really call it friendship. They're both Greek demigods, it's…only natural to see each other as allies."

Piper stopped walking. An uneasy look passed across her face, like she wanted to say something. I stopped too, eyes narrowing. A look of doubt radiated across her demeanor, and I wondered if I'd said something wrong. "You okay?"

She shook her head. "It's nothing."

It wasn't like Piper not to speak her mind. Not unless something bad was happening. Taking the chance, I reached over for her hand. "Are you alright?"

"I'm _fine_." She seemed a little better now that I held her hand. A tiny smile spread across her lips. "Really."

Luckily for me, Leo cut us off before I could make another unknown mistake: "Hey, _Love Birds_. Are we going to dinner or not?"

Now, before you shrug that off, you have to understand Leo thought it was his greatest nickname ever. He called us that once, back at Camp Halfblood when Chiron advised I take sword-fighting classes to learn the Greek way (even though I protested.) It was awkward, giving up what I already knew. Piper surprisingly got it right away, making her even more admirable to her brothers and sisters. In the middle of helping me solidify a stance, Leo rolled his eyes because Piper was supposed to help _him_, too. He was already grumpy, being away from his ship.

He called us dorky Love Birds. Then busted out laughing. _Love_, for the Child of Aphrodite. _Birds_, because it was an animal in the sky. Since then, the name just stuck, like Bragelina, Makorra, or—Gods forbid, _Percabeth. _Ananbeth actually called us Love Birds once by accident.

I didn't really mind. I'm pretty sure Piper didn't, either. We weren't a couple. Yet.

Anyway, I snorted. "If you really want to."

"Oh," Leo patted his stomach again—each sound almost spelled out, F-O-O-D. "I'm ready."

Having dinner aboard the Argo II was completely different from eating at Camp Halfblood and Camp Jupiter. For one, you weren't divided by cabin or cohorts. It'd be pretty dumb to do, considering there was only the seven of us. In some cruel twist of fate, Percy and I would still be sitting next to each other based on the latter design.

The table, like everything else aboard the ship, was made by Leo and the rest of the cabin. It was long enough to fit us seven, about as big as one of the tables in the Mess House. Hazel and Frank stood in the kitchen, obviously preparing food for seven. Hazel waltzed around the kitchen, humming some kind of tune from the 40's, and Frank…mostly, he stood there. I think he was afraid of knocking something over.

Immediately, Percy broke away from our little group to kiss Annabeth on the cheek, who sat at the end with Daedalus's laptop on surface. She studied it, unfazed, then looked to her boyfriend with a smile and kissed him fully on the mouth.

Usually that's how it was. From the moment they saw each other again, Percy and Annabeth had been joined at the hip. As we reached New Rome and they caught sight of each other, Percy picked her up from the ground into a bear hug and kissed her. It was the first time I'd seen Annabeth truly smile since I knew her.

Now those smiles happened all the time. She'd whack Percy whenever he said something stupid. He got whacked a lot.

"I hope you guys like gumbo." Hazel blushed bashfully as she turned around, the pot still simmering in her hands. We all helped prepare the table; getting forks, spoons, and plates to set down, then to enjoy the feast. Percy sat next to Annabeth and Hazel sat next to Frank. I had myself squished between both Leo and Piper.

"It looks delicious." Leo licked his lips and grinned. We took turns scraping food into the bronze brazier, offering food to the gods, then began our dinner.

It was probably an odd sight: seven demigods who were all teenagers sitting at the kitchen table like a big happy family. There were still plenty things that needed to be done. We'd been in the air for about three days, going over the plan and exchanging information between Camp Jupiter and Camp Halfblood. We needed to hurry to Rome, then to Greece as soon as possible. Things still needed to be built. Battle plans still needed to be made.

However, Hazel was the one who suggested we all sat down for at least dinner the first night. Although the air could be tense (especially between Percy, Annabeth, and the rest of us), there was a common theme that ran through our little group: none of us really had a _family_ dinner.

Yeah, it could be argued. Camp Jupiter was my home, and now, so was Camp Halfblood. But Leo's mother had died when he was eight—he'd been orphaned. Piper's dad was always away for some big movie—she would normally eat with a maid or something. Frank quietly admitted he didn't really have a family anymore, and Hazel's family wasn't even from our century. I'd been taken away from my mother and sister when I was two, by Lupa. Astonishingly, Annabeth and Percy both admitted to having families, but the idea of being able to sit down and have a quiet meal seemed foreign to them, too.

It helped strengthen trust between us. After Percy reappeared, Annabeth studied me less, like she finally decided I wasn't going to slaughter Camp Halfblood. I'd known Hazel a few weeks before Hera had exchanged Percy and me, but I'd liked her. A lot, like a sister. Frank was nice, too—he was good for her.

"It's vegetarian," Hazel reassured. Her eyes fell over to Piper and she smiled sweetly.

Piper smiled back. I had a feeling she would have eaten it regardless—they got along pretty well. All the girls did.

"We should cross the rest of the sea over night." Leo stuffed a spoonful of gumbo in his mouth and hummed—a sure sign that it was delicious. "Then, we'll have to land somewhere and restock on food. I can't be the _only_ one that thinks it's been too quiet."

We all nodded sympathetically. The ADHD in all of us made us antsy. While it'd be ideal to make it to Greece safely, the longer it took for a monster to attack us, the stronger they were.

"Extra supplies would be for the best." Annabeth took a sip of her gumbo, then looked to Leo skeptically. "I don't like it."

"Really?" Percy's eyebrows furrowed together. "I think it tastes fantastic." Hazel blushed.

"No, Seaweed Brain." _Whack._

"Ow!"

"_Leo's_ right. I don't want to seek out trouble, but we may have to." Annabeth suddenly looked to me, eyes narrowing, and I knew she wanted me to say something.

"We're going across the globe on a giant, floating ship," Percy intercepted. He rubbed the forming bruise on his arm where Annabeth hit him and set down his spoon. Green teased his complexion and he wrinkled his nose. "Flight's really not my thing. Maybe it's running interference or something."

That made me frown. "If that's the case, Jupiter is probably giving us cover so that monsters can't spot us."

"Maybe." Something twinkled in his eyes and immediately he shook his head. "No, I doubt it. They're not allowed to interfere in our quests. Not directly. Besides, we've been in his territory for days—I'm sure he's at the edge of his seat waiting for a chance to shoot me down. Or have an annie-whatever throw me off the ship." Percy squinted. "Do I need to point out the irony me being thrown off a ship? I feel like I do."

Annabeth decided on ignoring the last comment. She stroked her chin.

It was Frank who tore through the conversation last. "Uh, maybe we're all just used to fighting evil scary things that could kill us? It's weird, but I vote we don't jinx it."

There was a unanimous agreement.

"He's right. Nothing to ruin my_ beautiful_ ship." Leo split into a grin and held out his empty plate. "I suggest seconds! Then desert! Whatever that is!"

"There should still be some cookies and cream left in the fridge," Piper suggested. "Unless you ate it all."

"I could probably make some. Just gotta ask the belt for some rock salts." His eyes twinkled at the thought and grinned. Immediately, he looked at me, a challenge written in fiery orbs. "Well, Grace? Up for helping? Can't let the ladies do all the work."

There was something else in that look, too. I guess he could tell I was bothered by Percy—again. On the other hand, it'd been too long since I got to do something with my friend. My _best_ friend.

So I did the sensible thing—grinned—and dug my spoon into the gumbo. "You're on."

"Here, here!"

"Here, here!" shouted the rest of us.

It was ridiculous, but no one wanted less from Leo. He'd always been the excitable kid with the personality of a firecracker. Being on the warship after building it amongst his siblings, I don't think I'd ever seen him happier. He bounced around the place as though he was captain (and he might as well be—Percy had more experience with ships, but it was _my_ father's domain. Right now there was a vacant spot on leader, with Annabeth being a fill-in) and was having the time of his life.

It's what his mother would have wanted.

Leo and I were both far from touchy-feely kind of people—it wasn't very Roman. For Leo, he told Piper and I about running away from orphanages, foster homes, and crazy old ladies at least six times in his life. Being at Camp Halfblood and working on the warship, I'm sure he couldn't have felt any more comfortable in his skin. (I'm also pretty sure when we jerked around the clouds on the trip to Camp Jupiter, it was because he'd gotten misty-eyed and admired his work. Don't tell him I said that.)

So later, when the others evacuated the room into the home theatre (something Leo _insisted_ on building), he and I stood in the kitchenette passing around a gallon of milk, vanilla extract, and a handful of baggies. I was in the middle of a growth spurt, leaning a few inches over his head.

He studied the ice cream mixture cheerfully, humming some pop song under his breath that sounded suspiciously like Lady Gaga.

"So," Leo said finally, pulling baggies from his tool belt left and right, "you okay?"

A serene smile stretched across his face and for an instant, he stopped brisk fingers and leaned over the counter. I took it as my cue to stir the mixture, then bit the inside of my mouth. Before I said anything, Leo babbled on.

"_Don't_ say it's nothing, by the way. I know you by now, Jason Grace." The son of Hephaestus smirked, a challenge in his eyes. "Ever hear the phrase: _liar, liar, pants on fire_?_" _

It was the same as the Love Birds thing. Once he figured out how he could use that phrase, Leo made an effort to slip it into a conversation. I'm pretty sure the Athena Cabin was ready to wring his neck.

The mixture fell coldly into the baggies and I plopped them into the rock salt and ice for Leo to work his magic. We took turns watching each other, and I leaned against the kitchenette counter with a frown. There were _countless_ things that were bothering me. Over half of them, I didn't trust even myself to let cross my mind.

The handful that was left, I'd have a hard time telling anybody—even Leo, and I trusted him more than anyone. Even more than Piper.

Then, plucking the three most bothersome things I _could_ speak of, it still wasn't enough. My concern about this quest and suspicion that I'd have to lead it would be a general question. I'm sure if I said anything, Leo would think I was being absurd. That I was getting a big head. Then, there was also the fact Percy and Leo hanging out so much irked me. Leo would look at me like I'd grown another head.

So really, even if Leo called me out on how I was feeling, I wasn't up to having a conversation right now.

"You still worried about Piper?"

Well, that was that. But…I could feel my ears turn pink. Like I said, I wasn't a touchy-feely kind of person.

"Dude." Leo reached for the baggies and massaged the rock salt and ice. A chuckle sung quietly from the back of his throat and he ducked his head. "I hope you realize that everyone and their _dog_ knows you two are gonna get together. The betting pool gets larger every day; trust me. I keep in touch with the Stoll Brothers."

"Right," I said, but my ears only burned brighter. We weren't…_that_ obvious, were we? I liked Piper, I really did. Every time I tried to tell her, the words just got stuck in the back of my throat—the reasons why I _wouldn't_ ask her came flying in and out of my head like someone hired my own personal skywriter, and in the end I'd feel like someone kicked me in the gut.

"So? You like her. She likes you. If I had it that easy I'd jump on the person in a heartbeat." Still not looking me in the eye, Leo tossed around the bag of homemade ice cream and I silently wondered if it was a good idea for the kid who could summon fire to be making our desert. He was silent, then lifted his gaze to meet mine.

A frown had twisted across Leo's lips and his eyebrows touched.

"I know," I said. For a lack of a better excuse, I said it again. "I…I _know, _but…"

Scratch what I said about Leo earlier. Sometimes you get so scared even telling your best friend was terrifying. If…if I were a little more like Percy, I'd have no problem puking my guts out. Literally and figuratively.

"Whatever Piper and I had—" My face turned a dark shade of scarlet. "—we put it aside in the past eight months. I needed to learn the Greek way—I needed to trust it. Then…going back to Camp Jupiter…seeing Reyna may have confused her a little. Me, too. Now, we're…I think we're trying to make it work, but…I may have said something that put her off." And that something, I wasn't even sure what it was.

Regardless, Leo paused, looking every bit offended _for_ Piper.

"I didn't call her fat or ugly. Or insult her father."

"Oh. Okay." He proceeded with pounding the bag with his fist. _BANG_ _BANG_ _BANG_. "Well, get some _nerve_, Grace. I'll tell you right now—Beauty Queen is just waiting for you to make the first move. If you wait too long, someone's gonna steal her."

"Like who?"

Instantly he looked up, the lights of the kitchen bouncing off his skin. Fire flickered in his eyes, amusement arching his eyebrows, and he narrowed his gaze to me as though there was a secret I didn't know. "You'd be surprised."

Oh. I wanted to ask more, but there was this numbing feeling on the back of my neck that told me it was a deadend subject. Before any doubt could hammer in my brain, I reminded myself we'd be on this boat for a while. Somewhere between now and getting to Greece, I _was_ going to tell Piper how I felt. That was a promise.

Silence passed between us. Leo rattled the bag, and I had a bad habit of getting lost in my head. As he reached for seven bowls to pour the ice cream in, I decided to confess another one of my thoughts.

"I don't like it when you hang out with Percy." It left my mouth before I could regret it, quiet and kind of strained. From the way Leo suddenly dropped the baggies, I assume he'd heard me. His hand spasmed and he looked up, the shock on his face. I shifted between both my feet. Where…do I go from here?

"Um. What." Was his reply.

"It…" Gods, this was hard. "I'm guessing you like him better than me." Before I could finish that comment, Leo held out a hand to cut me off. I couldn't see his face on the other side.

He took in a deep breath, chest expanding before slowly—_slowly, _he exhaled. "Let me say something to you, okay, Grace?"

I blinked. "Okay."

"You. _You. _I…" Leo made a face and made a gesture with his hands meaning something like, '_This is totally not happening.' _"I will _always_ like you better than Percy. Got it?"

The demeanor on his face reminded me of when I'd accidentally insulted his 'ability to annoy.' His words were steady, barely any mirth in his tone. I think Leo was a little mortified.

Nodding slowly, I helped him pick up the baggies that'd dropped on the floor. "Got it."

"Good. Now go give the ice cream to the others. Sit next to your future girlfriend." His voice was still tight, maybe even flustered. Gods, I hope I hadn't embarrassed him _that_ much.

Concern fluttered in my chest. "Leo?"

"I'll…try to take your feelings into account the next time I hang out with Percy. Or, don't hang out with Percy." Brown eyes narrowed to me reluctantly and Leo made one of his other goofy faces. "Okay?"

That sounded good. I nodded, feeling self-conscious after putting him on the spot, then smiled. "Alright."

"Good. Now _go_ before she falls asleep!" Leo nudged me in the arm, still refusing to look me in the eye.

"Alright. _Alright._" Grabbing four bowls of ice cream, I made my way out of the dining room and stumbled through the hall.

Later, I realized if I'd been paying more attention, I would have seen the great Leo Valdez blushing as I left.

**xxx**

The rest of the night went smoothly. Annabeth and Leo were right: being in the air so long tended to make someone edgy. We watched the first three _Harry Potter_ movies and started on _the Hunger Games_ before some of us were falling asleep and called it a night. Frank agreed to take first watch, though I think he wanted to do some animal watching on the crow's nest. Stacked against his bed in our quarters were thick books about a thousand different types of animals.

Despite him wanting to take first watch, it didn't make anyone else less antsy. Leo returned to navigating the ship, discussing with Annabeth a safe route to Greece. She had a theory that leaving America was like going to Alaska: the gods may be unable to help us. Hazel went to the stables to tend to Tempest, Arion, and the others.

It was still too early to go to bed. Every bone in my body tingled, begging to be put to the test. I'd gone too long without fighting something. So, I grabbed my gladius from the end of my mattress (an irresponsible place to leave it, I know) and sauntered to the training room, anxious to annihilate some training dummies.

What I saw caught me off guard.

Percy had already claimed the room to himself in the center of a training mat with a collection of dummies dangling from the ceiling. He was drenched in sweat, like he'd been there for hours (had he slipped away from the movies without us noticing?) and was no amateur when it came to the sword.

He moved like a _graecus_—er, I mean, a _Greek. _But it was nothing like the sword training classes Camp Halfblood offered—it was a typhoon raging out on the Pacific Ocean. He darted, tumbled, rolled, and sliced the heads of the dummies as though they were really enemies. Annabeth mentioned he was the best swordsman at camp, even pitted against the Athena and Ares Cabin, but…I didn't believe her until now.

When he was done with the three dummies in front of him, he wiped the sweat off his brow and set three more in their place.

I stood there for what seemed like ages. I could watch for hours—anyone that was good with a sword, I'd always had instant respect for.

There was nothing I wanted more than to challenge him to a duel. To spar with someone that _could _hold his own in a fight—and the more that I thought about it, fending off against a child of the Big Three and exchanging battle tactics, the more my body tingled with electricity.

At the same time, the thought deflated in my head. It frosted over, and I bit the inside of my mouth.

This was Percy Jackson, Son of Poseidon. The Leader of Camp Halfblood and currently a praetor to the Twelfth Legion of Rome. He was supposed to be on my team, or I was supposed to be on _his. _

The thought of fighting him had been more exciting than fighting _alongside _him.

Shoving that thought aside, I pushed the gladius against my belt, shut the doors and forced myself to my quarters. Whatever Leo and Annabeth had discussed, they must have been done, because Leo was curled up in his bed, fast asleep and snoring beneath a blanket with a cartoon dinosaur pattern.

Leo lifted his head groggily when the door shut behind me and rubbed his eye. "Jay…?"

I shook my head. "Nothing, man."

That night, I forced myself to sleep and locked the thoughts I'd had of Percy away. If I could postpone swallowing my pride and having to work together with the Son of Poseidon, then I would.

It was three in the morning when the prow exploded.

**xxx **

The entire ship rumbled and trembled like we were still on the ground and surviving through an earthquake. I fell off my bed, sucked out of my dream before I could recognize I _was_ dreaming and hit my head on the floor board. Leo had a worse fall: he had the top bunk in our quarters, and toppled right onto me.

"WHOA!"

"OOF!" I wheezed, pain rippling through my stomach as my best friend crashed head-first into my stomach. His head smashed into my nose so hard I'm sure it broke, and he stood to his feet.

"Sorry, bro." Leo pulled me to my feet and I muttered a, 'no problem' under my breath.

"What happened…?" Percy's voice was the third to fill the room. From the looks of it, he'd fallen off the bed too, an ugly bruise forming on his forehead. He pulled himself to his feet by the wood, looking green in the face as he wrinkled his nose.

The door burst open and Annabeth's panicked face appeared at the entrance. "The ship's under attack! _Anemoi Thuellai_ are attacking! Harpies, too!" She muttered a curse in Ancient Greek and hastily bolted to the other quarters where the girls were asleep.

That sobered all three of us immediately. I grabbed my gladius the same moment Percy reached for the pen beneath his pillow and uncapped it. _Anuklusmos_—Riptide—expanded to its full length, faintly bringing me back to finding him in the training room.

All three of us, joined by the girls, dashed onto the top of the Argo II and found the damage was worse than we could imagine. Hazel screamed, Piper gasped. Annabeth's face paled to a pasty white and we all stared above in horror.

_Anemoi Thuellai_—the Storm Spirits—howled at the prowl of the ship. There were three of them, all cackling harshly in the wind and screeching with laughter. One of them, the biggest, soared ninety feet above air and skyrocketed. His target: us.

"HIT THE DECK!" I screamed. Apparently I was the only one to see him move. Instantly the others snapped out of their stupor and darted in opposite directions. Still, the biggest Venti's impact caused a ripple that sent me flying into the ship. I hit my head again, this time hearing something crack in my neck.

Above us, a large eagle crowed urgently, and we realized Frank was watching over us. He grabbed one of the smaller venti with a talon and dragged him across the sky.

Another venti spliced through the air and cut my cheek before I could see it coming. It cackled in my face, clawed at my shoulder, and I willed it away with the wind. From the corner of my eye, I caught sight of Piper and Annabeth both fending off a harpy, and Leo throwing a hammer through the biggest venti. It targeted him.

I swiped the gladius in the direction of the girls, and a gust of wind followed my lead. "Scram!"

The harpy was temporarily subdued, pushed away from both of them. We regrouped just as Percy fended off a second harpy, a look of disgust on his face. Leo—he was literally steaming. _Fuming_, with smoke coming from his hair like a chimney.

"My ship," he snapped, anger radiating in his voice. "All the magical flying ships that are in the air and these bastards dare to wreck _my_ ship!"

"We're falling out of the sky," I said immediately. Without the full shape of the Argo II, we were going to crash land in the ocean. "We need—"

"Frank is having trouble up there. We need to get up there and help him fend off the harpies and the annie…whatever those things are." Percy cut me off, hands fisted around Riptide. He looked to the sky, jaw tight and face green, and then to all of us. "Leo, you need to get to the steering wheel, _now. _If we can't fly, we need to land the ship as safely as possible. If…I can get to Blackjack, then maybe I could lure them away."

"That's a dangerous plan," Annabeth snapped. Despite the scowl on her face, the fear could be seen in her eyes under the moonlight. "Even then, their goal is to _bring us down_. Percy, I'm not going to lose you again."

It sounded more like an order than a claim, but we all knew where she was coming from.

"We don't have a choice!" Percy's voice was strained—it cracked a little, and he looked conflicted beneath the moonlight too.

"Yes," I said, "we do. You're not the only one with a flying horse, Jackson. Hazel and I can help. Frank, too. If the four of us are gone, we can lead them away from the ship as Leo tries to fix it." Both Greek demigods looked to me reluctantly, like going with a semi-less-dangerous plan was a crazy idea.

Finally, Percy nodded, a grimness appearing in the shadows of his face. He turned around, quickly swept Annabeth into a kiss, and looked to her seriously. "You and Piper hold the fort up here. Charmspeak them, use the cannons. Don't do anything dangerous unless you have to—got it?"

"Shouldn't I be telling _you_ that?"

"Only if I get a goodbye kiss."

"When you come back."

"Naturally." Percy agreed, and without another word, he bolted for the ship's stables, Riptide in hand. Stunned, Hazel and I looked at each other and broke off into a run.

Percy's actions now made his training session with the dummies look like a mother doting on her children. He jutted aside a third harpy that dared lunge at us, piercing his sword into her gut violently and barely looking, then continued running. The harpy burst into dust and nearly blinded Hazel and I as we ran. Another harpy came after us—Hazel and I took turns fending off against it.

"He's relentless." Impulsive, too. I was telling Hazel this with amazement when Percy did the nonsensical thing and jumped through the stable window instead of bursting through the door.

Hazel nodded, a grin on her face despite the danger her boyfriend was in. "You, him, and my brother, Nico. You three have to be the most _powerful_ demigods I'd ever met."

When she put it that way, I couldn't help but feel intimidated by the thought.

Tempest was happy to see me. I settled onto his back just as Percy climbed onto Blackjack and Hazel nestled on Arion—two horses/stallions that had to be a part of the oddest bunch I'd ever met. When Arion and Tempest neighed, Percy wrinkled his nose and patted Blackjack sympathetically on the head.

"C'mon," he ushered. "And don't call me boss!"

Grimacing with distaste, I almost said something until Hazel burst into a fit of ill-timed giggles. She looked to me mirthfully, then followed Percy's lead as his pegasus flapped its wings and raised into the air. Arion followed, and my ears popped as he pounded the wind with his hooves, faster than even Blackjack was flying. That left me and Tempest, who boomed in the air as a storm cloud, lightning crackling in his snout.

The fight looked better when we rejoined. Annabeth's hands worked like magic over the cannons, and she shot celestial-bronze coated bombs at the spirits. Piper managed to charmspeak a harpy into sleeping before knocking it off the ship. Frank smashed his beak into a second venti, which disappeared on collision.

Yet it was clear as day: we were falling out of the air, jerking and tumbling as Leo presumably tried to take control of the ship.

It left the three of us with was the biggest venti, the one that now looked the size of a cumulonimbus cloud.

Percy dove into the air, then spiraled toward it. "Hey, _UGLY!" _With Riptide in his hand, he made a deep cut in one of the venti's legs. "You been putting on some weight lately? Your stratus is jiggling!"

I gawked. Apparently he was assuming the biggest venti was a _girl._

Worst of all, Percy was _right_. The girl-venti shrieked like a pterodactyl, lightning crackling in her mouth as she lunged for Percy. Percy was too fast, immediately jolting west toward the ocean.

Blackjack and Arion neighed, like they decided they were going to insult the girl-venti too. With a disturbing burst of power she shrieked and yelled with frustration, then went after all of us, Frank hot on our trail.

We were half a mile away from the ship within seconds. Blackjack led the charge west, closer to the ocean. Columns of water shot from beneath us, and the third one made the girl-venti fall backward. I dove with Tempest and slashed through her thigh.

She screeched again—so deafening I knew I wouldn't be hearing anything for at least a week. Her hand curled into a fist, and Hazel made a deathly sound. She and Arion had somehow gotten coiled between her fingers.

"No!" Hazel shouted. Frank flew above, pecking and stabbing at the storm spirit's knuckles. The girl-venti's fist crackled—she was summoning _lightning._

Percy and I acted fast. We didn't like each other, but there was _no way_ we were going back to the Argo II with Hazel's dead body in tow. Percy dove to jut his sword in the storm spirit's stomach, and I maneuvered Tempest as fast as I could. With the right force, I managed to knock Hazel out of the girl-venti's fist before she got electrocuted. In doing so, Tempest and I were stuck in the venti's hold.

"Absorb it!" I hissed.

Tempest neighed in agreement, and instantly we were both shot with four-hundred kilowatts of pure, concentrated energy. It would have killed Hazel.

Being a storm spirit himself, Tempest had no problem, and me—the first jolt was like being submerged in water and more aware of my surroundings. I held up my gladius and managed to absorb part of the electricity.

Below, my teammates hadn't let me down. Because the girl-venti was busy with me, Percy managed to sneak above her and stab Riptide in her clavicle. Arion, too, bulleted into the girl-venti's stomach, and she doubled over, choking on some stratus clouds just as eagle-Frank clawed the top of her head with his talons.

I delivered the final blow, redirecting the electricity and striking her down.

Girl-venti keeled over, fierce eyes dilating before she disappeared into nothing more than dust over the ocean.

Percy, Hazel, and I remained mounted on our horses, staring at the aftermath and trying to process what we'd just done. We were panting hard, the thought of fighting something so strong that _wasn't_ a god still numbing our minds.

Finally, Hazel looked up to both Percy and I, a smile brimming on her face. "We make a _great_ team."

Frank perched on her shoulder and squawked in agreement. His eyes looked between Percy and I, beak almost…smiling? Could birds do that?

Still catching my breath, I found myself eye-to-eye with the Son of Poseidon, who did another cross-examination of me. His hair was coated in sweat, pajama bottoms gnarled and slashed by harpies, and his t-shirt was in tatters. I bet I didn't look any better—especially coated with the fresh smell of lightning.

"Nice insult." Without hesitation, I found myself grinning.

"Nice tackle." He sniggered.

We high-fived, which sprouted a quiet sigh of relief from Hazel. Percy and I both knew the tension between us had a horrible effect on the team.

There was no time to be wasted as we soared back to the Argo II.

Before we landed on the surface—not even within a quarter mile of range, the front of the Argo II exploded _again. _Something had fallen out. A venti? A harpy? No—

Hurdling thirty kilometers from the troposphere straight into the sea was Leo.

**xxx**

**Author's Note: **

I've been going back and forth hesitation to post this because of Mark of Athena coming out soon. Finally, I decided I'll just post it, and it's going to be a _very different_ take about how the chosen seven travel to Greece. :D I can confirm for you now that neither Ella nor Coach Hedge are on the boat—there may not be a chance to mention them. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! It'll be an alternating POV story between Leo and Jason. It's _definitely_ exciting, haha.


	2. II: Leo

**Chapter II: **Leo

Okay. The two most definite ways to put me in a terrible, terrible, _terrible_ mood: 1. Destroying my dragon. If you try to slay Festus, my pet dragon, it only gives me permission to come find you and—I dunno, kick you or something. Maim you. Make sure you get the _worst _wedgie of your life, Leo style. That's already been done, however—Festus's entire system had been frozen and iced over, thanks to Khione the Ice Bitch, and—well, I held my own against her. Which leads us to Point B: Don't. Mess. With. My. Ship.

Anger simmered through my veins the instant I lay eyes on the hellhound-shaped hole at the end of the prowl. I was smoking—literally. With something this massive, I didn't _care_ if I was gonna set myself on fire—I wanted to slay the ugly chicken ladies and give them a speech or two on how _not_ to mess with a ship. Especially mine!

That brought me to where I was now, Point 7—What? We're on Point 3? Point C? Agh, who cares—can't you see I'm angry?!—hurdling thirty kilometers in the air toward the ocean, half numb since a harpy drove a claw in the back of my head. I don't know what was worse: the blood caked in my hair, the black and yellow spots clogging my vision or—you know, the thirty kilometers thing. Point Number 7 was quickly earning a spot on the, '_What Makes Leo Valdez Angry'_ list. It was an intricate list. Like—why would you put cherries in soft tacos? Hard tacos, I can understand, but _soft_? That was ridiculous.

Back to the matter at hand, the sun was glazing over the horizon. Air choked the inside of my lungs, the rest of my body flinging around like a rag doll, and my eyes rolling too and fro the back of my head. Ever see that episode of Avatar where Azula propelled herself into the air using her firebending?

Yeahhh, not a firebender. Sort of. Okay, yeah—but I was too numb. The tips of my fingers were numb, and in this entire fall I couldn't find my legs.

There was a shout, high and urgent, and from the corner of my blurry vision I could see the horses separating. One—the _crackling_ one shot through the air like a sonic boom toward me.

It shot down right above me, and in that moment I realized Jason was trying to catch me. He was screaming.

It was too late. I was falling fast for the water—where I mind you, was probably shark-infested, eel-infested, and all the other scary creatures of the deep blue sea (what if I got eaten by a piranha? Or a clown fish? I bet they aren't even funny.) I was _not_ the Son of Poseidon or Neptune or whatever. In fact, Percy was water, I was fire. All you got from it was a big, hot, and steamy mess.

Well, this was it. _Leonardo Jaime Valdez_ was gonna go down with his ship, submerge in water and drown. Guess it's ironic—given, you know. My mother and all. She died by fire, I died by water.

It'd be a good time to draw out my will.

First off, all my comic books go to Percy. I have a feeling he'd appreciate that. All the blueprints and ideas in my head that I managed to jot down on paper, go to Jake and Nyssa. Piper gets my tool belt—which seems odd to give a child of Aphrodite, but trust me. Once she realizes it conjures tofu, I think she'll like it.

Worst of all, falling to my death—I'm never gonna be able to tell…_that person_ how I feel. (In retrospect, it wouldn't have worked out. I'm not good enough.)

Before any other embarrassing thought could surface in my head, something yanked me into their clutches. My back pressed against Jason's chest and I realized he must have leaped off Tempest to gain momentum. His arm strapped against my stomach and we soared across the water fifty feet in the air.

"Hold on," Jason shouted. Wind whistled in my ears.

I wanted to say something like, "Good thing you're Superman, Grace," but I'd been hit so hard that it sounded more like, "_Yaaarghhhth_."

Jason waved his arm, spiraling and tumbling, and acted as though it were a bird's wing. He was trying to bring us back to the ship, but water had to be the worst possible air cushion ever. The more he forced wind beneath us, the angrier the ocean lashed back, sea salt jumping and clogging the back of my throat. His grip was so tight that I'm sure my torso bruised.

I knew he didn't want to admit it—Jason was tired. There was no way I was even in the same weight class as Piper and suspending both him and me in the air looked like a pebble as it skipped along a creek.

The inevitable happened—we plunged into the water, creating an explosion any diver would _tsk, tsk_ us for. Seawater choked my lungs and salt burned my eyes.

If that wasn't cruel enough, my big head decided it'd found a place to pound and felt like someone grabbed a hammer to enthusiastically bash my skull in.

Jason, if possible without choking last night's gumbo out of me, refused to let go, compressing his grip instead. Something was chasing him, I think—he flailed, gladius whipping around. Through even my blurry eyes, I swear to gods I saw a shark leering like we were human sushi.

Out of nowhere the water constricted. Something grabbed us.

It wasn't a shark—not even a freaky giant squid. What little air I had left evaporated and the water beneath our feet pushed up, nearly solidifying to give us a center of gravity. We broke the surface of the ocean, slivers and tendrils of water molding tight around our bodies until it looked like a giant fist was holding us.

The last thing I remembered was Jason's urgent voice and Percy's winning smile before I blacked out.

**xxx **

So. Now that we're out of mortal peril, I guess it's a good idea to introduce myself. No? I'm the only one who thinks that? Don't worry—it's not gonna turn into some weird Dora the Explorer tagalong or anything (don't tell anyone, but I had a crush on her until I was six. Pretty sure that's what started my, '_Fall for any girl so long as they're out of my league_' track record. When Diego came long—let's just say I picked up a new crush by the time I was seven.)

My name is Leonardo Jaime Valdez—I go by Leo. I'm the Son of Hephaestus and the only descendent with the gift of fire. My head hurts like _hell_—like a giant plucked me from the ground and decided to stick my head inside a blender. And that, my friend, does _not_ sound like something pleasant.

I wasn't awake—not yet. I came to that realization when my Aunt Frieda floated by on a giant nacho chip that was raining queso. She hissed that I needed to clean my room and I yelled for her to throw a tortilla chip my way. The sky was the oddest shade of purple (no more queso raining, sadly) and the sand a sickening hue of orange.

Sigh. If we get _one more hint_ about how the two camps coincided next to each other, I think I was gonna burn a curl off.

All of a sudden every one of my aches disappeared. My…senses were replaced, with this odd sense of thrill. My heart raced, palms sweated, and my face flushed. I sucked in a breath and let it out hazily.

I wasn't sixteen for nothing. You only get this feeling when you've fallen in love (I fall in love a lot) or when there was a serious need for sexual release.

Huh. I figured a general rule for being knocked unconscious and almost drowning meant it was a bad time to have a wet dream.

Never the less, I walked around the shoreline, my bare feet digging into the sand. There was no one in seeing distance—seagulls flew in the sky, squawking and tittering as their beady little eyes locked onto me. A shiver passed through my spine.

Great. Weren't most wet dreams supposed to be less complex?

The feeling was overwhelming by the time I got to the end of the beach. There was a boardwalk, a Ferris wheel, and all these other attractions for tourists. A flag waved in the distance and still, there were no people to be seen.

That was when I spotted a cave.

I'd gone maybe two steps toward it when a voice stopped me.

_"A son of Hephaestus, I see." _

It made me feel uneasy. It wasn't Gaia—no, too deep to be the crazy Earth lady. There was a wispiness to it that made me want to swoon. Whatever god spoke made my ears radiate with heat and entire body throb—sort of like how Ares provoked anger and Aphrodite was so hot and mesmerizing.

"Do I know you?" I called out. Probably a stupid question. "Am I dead?"

If possible, it seemed like the voice was hesitating. Finally, _"__Eres tan linda como una flor." _

Well. That wasn't normally who accompanied me in one of these dreams either. I felt myself turn redder than I already was. "Um—_right._ You see, I kinda…don't do that—"

_"This isn't a wet dream." _Oh-kay—that totally took a turn. _"We'll meet shortly, Leonardo Valdez." _

He said my name with an accent—one in all the right places. I took another step forward to see what was in the cave—then I woke up.

**xxx **

"Piper! He's waking up!"

Okay. Remember when I said that somehow the feeling of getting clawed in the back of the head by a giant she-harpy and being flung through the wall of a ship before plunging into the ocean disappeared into a wet dream? Well, it came back. It didn't replace the flush on my cheeks or the sweat coating my forehead—just piled on top of it. My head felt like someone took Poseidon's pointy fork-thingie and jammed it through my skull.

I shivered, feeling a gust of wind brush against the sweat on my neck, and tentatively opened my eyes.

"Hazel…why don't you get some brownies?"

"Um. O…Okay."

So, the girls were in the room. When I finally came to, the ceiling of the infirmary met my eyes. Along with Annabeth, Nyssa, and Jake, I'd designed every room in the ship—I knew it like the back of my hand. Jerking beneath the sheet, I could tell I'd been taken care of. Someone—probably Piper or Hazel—wrapped gauze around my head.

Pushing off the bed, I finally noticed Piper sitting on a stool next to me. I blinked—once, twice—then realized she was staring down. Further down where—oh.

Right. _Wet dream._ Somewhat without the usual effects. I pulled the sheet back over my legs where thankfully, I'd been wearing pants, and blushed from head to toe. "Sorry."

On the bright side, there were quirks to being best friends with the Beauty Queen. When she and Jason weren't unintentionally thirdwheeling me, she tended to be pretty calm about me being…well, me. The Love Birds decided last February that I'd stopped being crazy and was just being myself. Piper was the sister I wished I'd always have.

So, when I apologized, Piper only shrugged. She handed me a Dr. Pepper and a square of ambrosia. I thanked her, then nibbled on it quietly, head still pounding. Three bites into it, I felt compelled to tell her what happened—how I knocked out and heard a voice in my head.

"It was wispy," I said slowly. "Like, how when you smell cookies and follow the smell until you get some. Only you can't have them." Aw, man. Now I wanted cookies.

Piper frowned, taking in everything I said to her. She reached to the overbed table and uncapped her own Dr. Pepper. "It…sounds like Eros. Aphrodite's son."

I froze. "You mean _Cupid_? The diaper boy?"

"Probably not a good idea to insult him." She made a face and did the Piper-thing by grabbing the rest of the square away from my mouth. The way she grimaced took no genius to realize she was bothered by something.

"He's the god that went around shooting people with arrows," I recounted.

Piper nodded. "He's known for pulling pranks and manipulating people. He shot Apollo and made him fall for a wood nymph once, all because Apollo insulted his archery skills. He shot Apollo with an arrow of lust and the nymph with an arrow of hate, then watched with amusement as Apollo pursued her."

"Sounds…terrifying." Like something I'd never want to happen to me.

"You mean barbaric," Piper lectured, a scowl still across her face. After we'd saved Hera all those months ago, Piper had delved deeper into all the Greek stories about Aphrodite. I'm assuming it led to Cupid, a subject she clearly disliked. "It's like charmspeaking—manipulating the way someone feels all with a stroke of an arrow."

Right. As useful of an ability it was, Piper hated charmspeaking someone. It made her paranoid—made her wonder if people agreed with her because she made sense or because she was manipulating them.

I decided to change the subject—probably best not to mention the baby god announced we'd meet soon.

Piper's eyebrows knitted together—she, _nor_ Jason realized it, but they both wore their heart on their sleeve. I could kick Percy's ass at Super Smash Bros, tell a joke or two to Frank, and _still_ see what they were feeling—all while navigating the ship, mind you.

Piper sensed the change of air before I did. She looked up. "Do you think Jason's okay?"

I think he's amazing, I didn't say.

"What do you mean?" The question hung in the air for a moment. I took a long sip of Dr. Pepper and watched her tentatively.

Her eyebrows knitted together, the expression still terse. Gods, it was like all the stupid movie series you see all the time: you know the couple's gonna get together, but you've got to spend twelve bucks every year for eight years to watch all the sexual tension.

"I dunno," she said quietly. This time, she turned a sweet shade of pink and hugged herself. "The romantic air, all the stars. You being stuck as navigator and everyone having their own thing to do—" (I took offense to that last comment.) "—I just…figured he'd make his move."

"You have to remember he's kind of stupid," I supplied. Fortunately she quirked a tiny smile at that—small and uneasy, but still a smile. "He's waiting for you. C'mon, you guys even got past Reyna, who totally has googoo eyes for someone else now. The past eight months have just been hard on him."

Which was true. There was more to what I said that I let on—something Jason had only told me after I beat it out of him. Telling you, I probably knew the guy better than he knew himself.

I thought back to a weary night at Camp Halfblood, where stars dangled in the sky like shimmering lights and the rest of Long Island was asleep, and Jason and I talked for hours after Piper sauntered back to her cabin for a good night's rest.

He told me what it was like getting all his memories stolen, then one-by-one getting them back.

_"It's like sitting in a room waiting for a movie to start, and once it does all you can do is sit there and watch," _Jay had explained. He sat on a worktable, dangling a wrench between his hands even though I lectured him aboutmessing with my toolbox_._ _"Then you leave the movie after getting all this information and go, 'okay, what am I supposed to do with it?'" _

It was terrifying, he confessed. We were trying to find something to talk about, and it was when I first realized I was able to spot his discomfort a mile away. Jason feared more than anyone going to sleep, waking up, and losing his memories all over again. To this day he still wondered if he'd gotten all his memories back.

There was only one person on this boat that could understand what he was going through. Alas, Jason trusted Percy about as much as he trusted Gaea.

Getting back to the matter at hand, I thought about last night and couldn't help from turning red myself. He and I had been making ice cream, talking about the _exact same thing—_how these Love Birds here were waiting for the other to make a move_._ Jason and I had done that since we set sail for Camp Jupiter. When I wasn't in charge of steering the ship, I was either giving relationship advice to Jay or reassuring Beauty Queen that Jason was head-over-heels for her. Sometimes it _sucked_ being the third wheel.

Then that same night, he confessed how much he missed me. He was…reasonably jealous of Percy. And _not as reasonably_, it was because I was spending so much time with the guy. That second problem—we can talk about that later. I just remembered standing there after Jay left, burning red and trying hard to calm myself before I melted the ice cream.

Telling Jay I liked him more than I'll ever like Percy is probably the closest thing to a confession that I'll ever get. I was totally okay with that.

"C'mon, Beauty Queen," I said when the air was open. Quickly making sure the _you-know-what_ between my legs had died down, I reached over (still bruised and sore, mind you) and squeezed her shoulder. A smile twitched across my lips and I arched an eyebrow. "You're the coolest, prettiest, smartest girl I've ever known. You think Grace is gonna be happy settling for anyone less than you?"

Piper looked up, kaleidoscope eyes teeming doubtfully.

"I'll talk to him," I reassured. Though I wasn't sure whether that was a truth or a lie. There was only so much you could say between two friends dying for each other before stepping over the friend zone. They might as well write down all their mushy-gushy feelings on paper and send them to each other in a pink letter. "Okay?"

Luckily that thought soothed her. I'm guessing in her mind, _'talking to him_' meant as soon as possible. I might as well get together with Percy and Hazel tonight and devise a plan to lump them together.

By this time, Hazel had scampered back from the kitchen, a tray of fresh brownies between her oven mitts. She looked between us, somewhat nervous, but I called her over.

"Did you make the brownies?" I grinned. "Are they as good as your gumbo?"

That put her to ease. "I hope so. Your oven's confusing."

A smile spread across her lips and Hazel waltzed into the room before setting the tray on the overbed table. She had a large bandaid on her forehead and a scar on her arm that was slowly fading, like she'd eaten some ambrosia herself to heal.

I took the chance to look at Piper, too. A cluster of bruises faded on the right side of her face and a three-clawed scar marred on her hand. In her lap was her lucky knife, stained with blood, indicating she hadn't cleaned it off yet from earlier.

That brought me back to the situation, a grimace contorting my face before I could enjoy nice brownies. I _knew_ Jason tried to save me as I fell. But what happened now? "Where is everyone?"

Hazel and Piper paled, their expressions looking sickened. They glanced at each other, exchanging a silent message.

It was Beauty Queen who placed a hand on my shoulder. "Try to keep a calm head, okay?"

**xxx**

I was gonna kill them.

If the others hadn't already slain the storm spirits and the harpies, I would have _killed them. _Scratch that—Gaea? Yeah, she was getting her ass handed to her personally, by _me._

According to Hazel and Piper, the attack from our enemy had damaged the prowl entirely. The Argo II would have made a rugged-but-safe landing in the water until I'd been knocked off the ship by a harpy, and for the two tensest minutes of all our minuscule, teenage demigod lives, Arion held the ship on his back in the air until Annabeth bolted for the control room to steer the ship. Jason had jumped after me after he realized Tempest wouldn't be fast enough, and Percy slayed the stupid chicken-lady that threw me overboard.

What we were looking at now only infuriated me further.

The Argo II had safely landed in the water by a trustworthy Annabeth (I _knew_ there was a big brain under all that prettiness), and she was now at the reigns, scoping for other monsters that could catch us off guard. Percy stood at the tip of the ship, literally willing water to flow _away_ from the giant hole at the front of the Argo II and babbling nautical miles when he could. Jason stood in the crow's nest, willing the winds the blow against the sail and sail faster. (Apparently this was a bad combination—the faster Jason pushed the ship, the more water attacked.) After days of watching the sea, Frank had turned into a dolphin and was torpedoing through the water, making sure there weren't any traps awaiting us.

My ship. My _ship_! It was damaged! Mutilated! Destroyed!

I stood next to the hole. I glared at the hole. I would have thrown _fire _at the hole, but that probably would have made me angrier.

Percy stood by my side, majorly concentrated on steering through the water, but he flashed a look of sympathy. "You okay, dude?"

Piper patted my shoulder anxiously. "Leo, smoke's coming out of your hair."

"Right. Sorry—" I batted it with my hand, cringing as I felt the soreness from the harpy wound, but it kept steaming. This was a _disaster._ The biggest thing I was in charge of—the ship that I've been dreaming of since I was a fucking _child_ was broken. It couldn't be airborne when it was damaged and we couldn't risk being on land. After all, eventually the _ocean would run out._ I don't think the naiads would like it very much if we drove this thing on the river.

And shit.

That was probably their plan all along.

Suddenly, Percy perked. He looked to me sympathetically and called out, "We're coming near land."

Simultaneously, Jason leaped from the crow's nest and landed at our feet. I expected him to lean toward Piper, but he immediately touched my shoulder with his hand. "We're coming near land. I can see it in the distance."

Percy rolled his eyes. "I just said that."

Just then, your friendly neighborhood dolphin was leaping toward the boat. It leaped thirty feet into the air, morphed into a tiny little bird, then a human Frank stumbled onto the surface. We stared at him as he got his footing and he looked up. "We're coming near—"

"Land," I finished for him. "Yeah, you're like the third person to say that. Is there a plan involved here?"

"Annabeth said once we got near, go into the control room for a meeting." Percy nudged his head to the back of the ship and made a face. He lifted his hand, and suddenly the ship stopped. Walking to the edge lifted his hand and a cluster of sea creatures—from plankton to whales—stared at the son of Poseidon. Percy chattered, then looked back up with a smile. "They'll make sure the boat doesn't sink, but we'll have to hurry. One of those dolphins is pretty mouthy."

"Great," I grumbled. To be fair, this was an _airborne_ ship to begin with.

Percy took the cue to lead the rest of us to his girlfriend. The others fell behind him immediately. Before I could take my turn, Jason pulled me aside, the hand still curled on my bicep, and looked to me with concern.

"You okay?" he asked. Guilt flashed across his face. I realized he was eyeballing the gauze wrapped in my hair. He had a few bruises too—one that was a fading black eye. "I should have been able to—"

"You jumped off a flying horse to save me." I cut him off, lightly punching him in the arm. Sadly, that hurt the both of us. As angry as I was about the ship, there was no way I was gonna have him as sad as a puppy for my injuries. "Jason Grace, you are, without a doubt, the _best_ friend a guy could have. Even if you _aren't_ a mechanical flying dragon."

It was a good thing I knew the right words to subdue my best friend. A smile formed across his face, and his elbow nudged mine only slightly before he walked after the others. I looked back to the wound on the Argo II, scowled, and followed right after him.

Maybe it was a little unnecessary for us to bring a ping-pong table aboard the Argo II to conduct all our meetings. We didn't really play ping-pong on it—if there was anything that needed to be said, or if someone was hogging all the hot water again in the shower, this was where we went. Hazel and Frank looked at it like we were crazy. Percy only grinned, a big smile on his face when he saw it, and Annabeth elbowed him in the ribcage playfully.

Apparently when a guy had smoke steaming from his hair and flames flickering at the tips of his fingers, demigods didn't want to hover around him. For all I knew, I could light the gauze wrapped around my head on fire and bring the ship down myself. Piper and Jason, who were used to seeing a flame or two atop my head, had no problem sitting beside me. I had a sneaking suspicion that the water bottle Piper held wasn't for drinking.

Frank looked nervous, Hazel bit her lip, Annabeth frowned, and Percy was squinting at my hair like he was trying to figure out an experiment.

Of course, they were staring at _me_ for the answer. I crossed my arms stubbornly, grinding my teeth like an old man who spent the morning telling kids to get off his lawn.

"The ship needs to be airborne again as soon as possible." Annabeth sucked in a breath. She rubbed her shoulder like it ached, and frustration teemed in her expression. We were _all_ a little agitated. "How long do you think it'll take for repairs?"

"It's not that simple." I grimaced and shifted uncomfortably in my seat. Guess there wasn't a better time to reveal the truth. "The ship is made up of an alloy of imperial gold, celestial bronze and this…this other metal. One that's very complicated to find."

"Can't you substitute it?" she frowned.

I shook my head. "Not without contaminating the structure. This third metal is what _induces_ the Mist. Like someone managed to capture part of it and solidify its form. That's part of the reason we made it out of the States so safely—any monster that looked up probably thought we were just some giant cloud. Or a small one—you know, if you scale clouds to size."

A look passed around the table, taken aback and confused by what I just said.

"You managed to find material made by the _Mist?" _Frank looked amazed. That went for the rest of them, too. "And uh, you didn't think it was worth mentioning?"

I shrugged. "It hadn't crossed my mind until now. I figured we'd be able to go through Europe with the _ship_ at least intact. Jake and I found giant metal sheets of it after Christmas like it'd been lying around for a while."

No one looked eased by the thought—especially Piper and Jay. I couldn't blame any of them—in some form or another the Mist has tricked all of us. Having been on a boat for four days now, which was constructed entirely by a form _of_ the Mist would rub anyone the wrong way.

Thankfully, Annabeth spoke on my behalf. She made a sound and bit the inside of her mouth. "There were notes about it on Daedalus's laptop; a way to capture the mist and hone it as a weapon. There's…only one god, though, that managed to forge his arrows from that substance. Eros."

I cocked my head. Piper and I exchanged looks and I twitched—of course. Of course! How could I be so _stupid_?

Jason yowled—apparently I'd gotten so excited over the idea, my body temperature spiked a hundred degrees.

"Sorry," I said, but too excited to feel guilty. "I saw Eros! In a dream!"

Leaving out the part where I thought I'd been in the weirdest wet dream ever, I told them about how he predicted we'd run into each other soon. I think Piper was upset that I withheld information, but even that was not enough to deter me. I wanted my ship fixed—and I wanted it fixed, _now. _

"Wait—" Percy cut all of us off. He pressed a hand to his forehead, an apparent headache surfacing, and then looked to Annabeth in confusion. "Cupid. The guy that looks like _Death_, also the Baby Guy—he uses the _Mist_ in his arrows to strike people down? _How_?"

"Eros isn't just a crazy kid that messes people up." For some reason, Annabeth eyed both Frank and Piper as she said this, then grimaced. "He's a minor god, the child of Ares and Aphrodite—love and war. I'm guessing the arrow changes peoples' perspectives and alter the way they think."

"Sort of like charmspeaking," Piper deduced. She looked sick to her stomach, annoyed.

"A lot like charmspeaking. Not even all of Aphrodite's children have that ability." Nodding, Annabeth eyed all of us around the table. "And he offends easily. If we find him—_when_ we find him, do very little to provoke him. Flatter him. Impress him. We need to figure out how to hone the Mist into metal so we can all help Leo fix the ship. Got it?"

There was a quiet round of agreement. I'm guessing all the couples on board weren't looking forward to the possibility of courting a tree. The last guy that offended Cupid probably tried to marry the Statue of Liberty.

Outside a window, we could see the coastline of the place we'd landed. If this _was_ Eros's territory, then that meant he was waiting for us.

"Where are we starting our search?" I turned to Jason, Percy, and Frank, all three of which who had spotted land before any of us. They made faces and shrugged.

Annabeth made a face, as if she'd just eaten something sour, then rolled her eyes with a sigh. "The place any child of Aphrodite has to see at least once in their lifetime. France."

**xxx**

Because we were hesitant on the idea whether or not the Mist would still work for the rest of the ship, Frank got the idea to draw the American Flag and tape it over Festus's head. Yeah—when you were a desperate demigod that was not looking for trouble, you tended to do some pathetic things. Piper managed to convince authorities waiting at the docks that we were a trade ship from America. (The way they rolled their eyes and muttered something about '_Américains'_ made me wonder if they even _needed_ to be charmspoken.)

Percy guided the ship far off coast into an abandoned-looking warehouse, where it would be for the next few days. According to the faded text airbrushed on the roof, we were in a part of France called _Brest, Brittany. _Neighboring ocean creatures didn't look happy, but he assured us the ship would keep afloat for the time being.

We changed out of pajamas into clothes fit for the weather—some light jackets, jeans, and either purple or orange campshirts.

I looked between Jason and Percy, making a face.

Percy was first to notice my confusion, then looked down to the purple shirt he wore. His gaze returned to Jason, who wore the orange one, and he scratched his head. "Um. Right. That's kind of weird."

Jason nodded slowly and pulled his shirt off. "Wanna trade?"

"Please."

So thusly, Frank, Jason, Percy, and I met the girls in the hallway before we exited the ship onto land for the first time in four days. There was a sigh of relief as there was disdain when our feet touched the ground.

We looked like an odd bunch—seven clearly ethnically diverse, _not French_, teenagers waltzing outside an abandoned warehouse. Piper had no choice but to lead the way—she was the only one that could read the signs. People stared like we were a group of tourists, and she asked them for directions to get into the city.

Getting gawked at by a bunch of Frenchmen. Nothing new—just more French and funny accents.

Finally, we stopped when the port opened up into nearby cafes on the boardwalk, restaurants, and small shopping sights; a few looking _perfect_ to get some souvenirs. The day was musky—fat, husky gray clouds grazed over the sky and fog went through the town. Still, no one looked discouraged as they walked around and bought foods, and little kids played on the sidewalk.

Piper looked around and frowned.

I nudged her and arched an eyebrow. Something wrong?"

"No—I don't think so." Still, Beauty Queen fidgeted and messed with the end of her fleece ski jacket. "Just…where do we even _look_ for Eros? The chances of finding him are like a billion to one."

"The Greek Gods and myths follow western civilization," Annabeth agreed. She shook her head thoughtfully, her owl earrings jingling in the wind. "I don't understand why Eros would be so far away from America, but he is."

"Duh," I said immediately. I gave her a look and waved my hand. "Love is universal. He's probably got like, seventy kajillion eerie caves around the world."

After I said that, another wave of odd looks came my way. Jason looked to me doubtfully, blond eyebrows contorting. "So…what makes you think Eros is in one of the kajillion caves in _France_, Leo?"

Oh. I shook my head again, this time with a frown working across my lips. "He's here. I wouldn't have gotten the dream vision unless otherwise guys." Still, they looked doubtful. I held my chest out and head up. "Trust me guys. I'm the Love Master!"

"If that's the case, we should split up." Ananbeth looked back and forth. "We'll cover more ground that way. Any disagreements?"

"Nope. Sounds good." Percy grabbed her hand, indicating they were a group. Made sense—Annabeth and Percy knew each other the best.

Then there was Frank and Hazel. Jason looked to me, but I shook my head and gestured toward Piper. That left me with—oh.

All the couples looked my way and for the first time since we were on the ship, it was blaringly obvious I was the odd one out. I'd never noticed it before, but there was a blatant amount of guilt and nervousness written on their faces.

"You know you're coming with us, right?" Piper spoke through the bunch. She had her hands tucked in her ski jacket, leaned into Jason, and shared a smile with the guy. "Come on, Valdez."

I looked to both of them skeptically. It had been literally less than twenty-four hours since I tried wingman for the both of them. And now they wanted my company.

"Um," came an unintelligent sound from my mouth, "I can go by mys—"

"No," was the unanimous reply from all of them. You could see it on their face—somehow, Leo Valdez was going to break France or something.

"There's a place with us, too," Percy offered. I would have thought Annabeth would disagree, given the wistful look when she saw some of the older buildings, but she nodded immediately in agreement.

"Better to have both of you on a leash than find you making out with a dog. Or worse," she mused, "each other."

Well. That was a heartwarming…concern.

I looked between Percy and Annabeth, then to Jason and Piper. There was also Hazel and Frank to think about, too—we didn't know each other well, but I knew the big guy wanted to impress her. If I had it _my_ way, I wouldn't have to thirdwheel _anyone._

Sigh. Forever alone.

I took a step toward Percy, then remembered Jason's biggest fear from last night. I _promised_ to give him some attention, regardless how…unorthodox and ridiculous this seemed.

Okay.

"I'll stick to the golden trio." Wedging myself between Piper and Jason, a smile pressed against my lips and I slung an arm around their shoulders.

It was hard to tell what the look on Percy's face meant—I think he wanted as much alone time he could get with Annabeth, but given the circumstances, her head would be in the mission. Either way, Jason looked pretty happy that I chose him over the other "Big Three" kid.

"If Eros gave you that dream vision, he's probably somewhere in town." That was when Percy slipped into leader-mode. His eyebrows contorted as though he was trying ot reason everything out. "Piper's got the best shot by asking around and seeing…I dunno—" He blinked and looked to Annabeth. "If people are like, lovey-dovey or something?"

Annabeth shrugged. Piper looked lost, too, and this was _their _area of expertise.

If that wasn't strange enough, Jason was the one who spoke up next. He scratched his head. "I talked to Venus once, years ago." It caught all our attention—especially mine and Beauty Queen's. Even to me, it was rare Jason ever said anything about his memories. "It's like…this feeling in your gut. Suddenly, you're all impulsive and want to do things. And you're passionate about it. She told me that I would—" He stopped before going into specifics.

A question hung at the tip of my tongue, but Percy intervened before I could ask. He nodded in agreement. "Right. Yeah. She's—um. She's pretty."

There you go, ladies and gentlemen. How a Child of Greece and Child of Rome both tackled a situation. Now you know how close we were to finding the son of Aphrodite. Annabeth looked to her boyfriend warily and Piper's gaze glued to a tense Jason.

_I_ was the one that got back to what was important. "So, all we have to do is find a passionate pretty boy in France that makes you impulsive and incredibly horny. No problem."

Don't worry. You get used to receiving odd looks after being me for a while.

Nevertheless, we all separated. Hazel and Frank went to get an aerial view—after all, if you were a god depicted with wings and a stinky diaper, it'd be pretty hard to miss in the sky. They mentioned something about climbing towers and looking for anything suspicious. Annabeth and Percy went to search for the cave in my vision. It would make more sense if I went—but given he had more experience with the ocean we decided he may sense the cave or something.

Piper, Jason, and I walked along the boardwalk where in the distance, the French flag could be seen, just like my dream. The plan was to meet back on the dock in an hour.

Because it was the three of us, we'd formed a tiny triangle: Piper up front, asking locals if they'd seen anything suspicious—if…_love was in the air_, etc. I could tell it was killing her. Jason and I followed from behind, and every once in a while, she'd scrunch her nose and roll her eyes when she had to repeat herself.

If they noticed, they were too busy ogling Piper and how pretty she was—guy _or _girl. I thought this would provoke some irritation from Jason, but every few minutes or so I'd catch him staring at my head.

"It's not going up into flames or something, right?" I asked. To make sure, I ran a hand through my hair and sighed with relief. I'd taken the gauze and the bandages out so I wasn't mistaken for a mental patient.

"No…I—" Jason shook his head. "I'm wondering why the venti attacked us. Why they were so powerful_._"

Oh. Good, I wouldn't have to give him the, '_You're my best friend and what happened wasn't your fault_,' speech again. His concern was touching—the way he brought himself down was not. Scratching my head (and wincing, when I realized that's where the bruises were), I only shrugged. "We were in the air for a long time, Jay. Just the air. They probably took the chance to accumulate. You know, like clouds."

He nodded—so fortunately, the idea made sense. Still, Jason hung his head in shame and grimaced. "It just feels like it was my fault. If I'd seen them coming—"

"Jay, if we saw half the shit that happened to us coming, it would suck all the fun out of things." I nudged him in the arm and scrunched my face. "For a guy that can be a real Prince Charming and all Superman-y, you can get _really_ annoying."

Jason blinked. If it were any other person, they probably would have been offended by my beautiful choice of words, but he knew me long enough to know I was still rambling.

"I could have stayed in the control room all night to monitor the sky with my DDR machine. Percy could have called some mystical water creatures for look out. Hell, Piper could probably charmspeak a cloud like Frosty the Snowman and get it to tell us when the evil espresso drinks were coming." I jabbed my finger into Jason's chest when Piper stopped to talk to another person. He took it without a fight, still looking at me like my head just sprouted an apple tree. "The point is, you aren't the only one at fault. Got it, Jay?"

Blue eyes looked to me thoughtfully, a pair of blond eyebrows knitted together hesitantly. Finally, Jason nodded and muttered a 'thank you.' He smiled a little. "Did I ever tell you how much I like it when you call me Jay?"

I froze. No. But now my cheeks were heating up and my body temperature spiked a degree or two.

Rocking between my heels, I could feel my heart hammering against my chest—tittering at the way Jason complimented me. I looked to the ground and tucked my hands in my pockets. _Jeez_, this guy could be so _blunt_ sometimes and a big idiot the others.

When I finally regained my thoughts, I looked up to Jason and smirked. "C'mon."

Yanking his hand into my own, I curled my fingers through his and pulled him toward Piper when she was done talking to the next person. Before she could see it, I grabbed her hand with my free one and took lead.

She squeaked. "Uh, Leo—?"

"Coma mis pantalones cortos!" I exclaimed, then continued pulling them along. (In reality, what I really said was, _Eat my shorts!_ but I think they were too confused to argue.) We walked through the city, occasionally getting stares from some adults and even some children (c'mon, we were walking like the freaking Teletubbies—can't blame them), and being completely ignored by others. Jason didn't seem to care, and Piper gave up trying to make sense of the situation. Both of them had their hands tangled with mine.

Then I totally duped them—I moved forward and pushed their hands together. Instinctively, both Jay and Beauty Queen took hold of each other's hand and I disappeared. The Love Birds looked at my piece of work in surprise, red tingling on both their faces.

I pretended not to notice, digging my hands into my pockets and checking out some people through the window of a café. From the corner of my eye, I could see the both of them smiling gratefully.

"We, um, should keep moving," Piper murmured sweetly. "Some of the locals mentioned…more romance in the air than usual."

Jason arched an eyebrow, as red as she was. "Is that uh, even possible? Seeing love?"

Piper shrugged. "Sometimes it's so blaringly obvious that it's impossible _not_ to see, I guess."

"Right. Move it along then, Love Birds." I smirked at them, still proud of my work. "I've got a ship to fix."

They agreed without argument, and continued walking closer to the center of the city. We didn't even get over half a block before I was the one that stopped our little bunch.

Across the street inside a tiny little café, I saw Cupid.

**xxx**

You'd think searching for a god or stumbling upon a god would involve a lot more violence, lashing out, and some kind of duel between you and a big, bad enemy like Darth Vader. Maybe some evil spirits, or like, a crazy ghost that spoke Spanish and could turn the floor into acidic pudding. _Anything_ dangerous, or a way to know the situation was nowhere _near_ as safe as it was ten seconds ago.

Nope. Totally calm.

We went into this café with some funny name that had too many vowels and unsalvageable letters that used to be _human words_ and had no trouble finding him. The Archer of Love had his own booth by the window and was enjoying himself with a plate of fluffy Belgian waffles coated in powdered sugar and decorated with spongy whipped cream and strawberries bigger than my fists.

If it weren't for the fact I was so _freaking hungry_, I would have thought it was ridiculous he was having waffles at two in the afternoon. (Oh the heck with that—I'd have waffles for brunch and linner too, if I could.)

What made this even more ridiculous was the fact we were face-to-face with a little boy that looked no older than eight or nine. He had to be the most gorgeous child I'd ever seen—fair skin, airbrushed with a faint blush, amorous bright eyes, and a wispy cluster of curls. At the edge of his seat dangled a Nerf gun—a Nerf N-Strike Alpha Trooper CS-18. Don't ask me how I know that—it's not a son of Hephaestus thing, it's an, _I'm a total geek and proud of it_ thing.

"You're Cupid," I blabbered stupidly. His cheeks were as big as a squirrel's when they crammed nuts in them. Cupid looked to me, raising one wispy eyebrow in the air.

"Uh, Leo?" Piper touched my shoulder, doubt radiating in his voice. "I don't think that's who we're looking for. This boy must be waiting on his mom—"

"No," I cut her off. "This is him. It's totally him!" I don't know _how _I knew it was Cupid, but I _knew_. My hands were getting sweaty again, face flushed with excitement and heart hammering in my chest. Without thinking, I scooted into the other side of the booth and sat there staring at him.

Cupid scrutinized me head-to-toe, his fork still in his mouth. Finally, he swallowed, the chipmunk look to his cheeks gone, and set down his fork. His eyes glazed over in a way that made my heart skip a beat, and I was shivering with excitement. "Leonardo Valdez."

"Uh. Sir Cupid," I mumbled. I couldn't keep my eyes off of him. His accent curled again around my name—it was lighter to fit the body of a nine-year-old, but any doubt I had washed away.

Cupid examined my form yet another time before smiling disturbingly. "You keep your feelings and instincts close to your heart. I like that."

You know all those stupid people at the fair who go to the fortuneteller's tent in order to find something amazing about them? That's how I felt—only this wasn't stupid, and a god was totally reading into me.

"Leo, stop that," Piper snapped. It was then I realized I was the only one getting pulled into his mystic-love voodoo. Beauty Queen looked at me indignantly like I'd offered her one of Bigfoot's toes. "He's charmspeaking you—or, something…"

Jason yanked on her arm—a reminder we needed to act on civil terms with the Archer of Love. She wasn't too thrilled.

Cupid looked both my friends over, his hand grazing over the Nerf gun. His gaze twinkled, and he looked to Piper. "You. You are recluse. You fear love as much as you want to change it. I suppose—it's only natural in a child of Aphrodite."

Beauty Queen froze like she'd been caught redhanded. Before she could say anything, Cupid continued to Jason.

"Your heart withers. It needs a compass." Ummm, right. That last one didn't make very much sense to us, either. Still, Cupid looked to us like he was—you know, the goddamn Cupid, and continued eating the rest of his food. He held out a strawberry. "Want one?"

Given the look on Piper's face, I thought about refusing—but the way she and Annabeth described the guy, I didn't want to find myself making out with a French poodle because I didn't take one of his strawberries. I did that very thing, popped it in my mouth, and hummed.

"What brings three demigods to my home?" Cupid asked. "Two Greeks and a child of Rome? I _heard_ Gramma Juno was up to her tricks, but I didn't imagine this." Heh. _Grandma Juno._

It took a minute, but Piper finally eased and scooted into the booth. Jason followed right behind her, hands still intertwined. Piper spoke: "We're trying to stop the giants before they reach the roots of the Gods. Our ship was attacked by Gaea's army and…we were told you worked with a substance that—"

"Are you Spanish?" Cupid cut her off like a knife through cheese. I'd almost jumped when his gaze narrowed at me, observant and curious.

"Um, I'm half-Latino. So sort of." I blinked. "Look, what Piper was saying was really…"

Another smile graced Cupid's lips. He reached for a napkin and proceeded polishing one of his nerf darts. "Do you have any questions in the matter of love? I am my mother's child, I can certainly see what awaits you."

My heart was really set on my ship. But the way the god looked at me, the way his voice was so mesmerizing—I think I finally understood why Piper hated charmspeaking so much. As a descendant of Love _and_ War, Cupid was a dangerous god.

The question tumbled from my lips with scary ease. "Am I ever gonna love someone that loves me back?"

There wasn't a crack in my voice when I said that. Not even in the slightest—Piper and Jason looked at me, genuinely surprised by my question. I'd _never_ asked it before—only worried about it my entire life, after my mom died.

Cupid smiled like it was the most casual question in the world. "I can sense you already do. In time, he will learn."

You'd think with an answer like that my heart would skip a beat, do some somersaults, then yell to the heavens that I'm finally getting what I wanted. Instead, my blood ran cold, and instantly I sobered, eyes falling to my powdered sugar-covered hand.

Jason was the next to speak. His voice was more doubtful than mine—a struggle to remain calm. "Sir…will I…I'll be able to commit to one person, right?"

From the corner of my eye, I could see his eyebrows furrowed with fear. The blue in his eyes sat very uneasily and he blanched.

"I…don't want to hurt anyone," he said quietly. "For my girlfriend's sake, I hope—ow!"

Cupid totally just kicked Jay in the shin. You could see it and everything. I gawked—but he only continued eating his waffles. "You're going to have to make that decision yourself."

It was almost funny; what with Jason tending to his aching leg. "Will it be the right one?"

"Only if you're smart." His eyes glinted toward all of us. He looked to Piper—and before she could ask her own question (not that she wanted to, I'm pretty sure), he picked up another of his nerf darts. It glittered with gold mist and grew long and sleek until it was an arrow. A rag materialized in his free hand and he polished it tenderly. Yup—definitely Cupid. "So you want to fix your ship, and to do so, you must learn to carve metal from the Mist, like my stepfather does for my arrows. Is that correct?"

I blinked, then nodded in confirmation. He was right—all of that was right. A second later I realized by stepfather, he meant _my_ dad. My dad was the one who forged Cupid's arrows. He was probably the one who left the material back at the camp, too. I was suddenly more interested in the matters of love and those arrows than I was before. "How do your arrows work, exactly?"

The arrow was roughly the length of my arm, glimmering despite the dreary weather outside. His reaction to me was so disturbing (wow, a god that didn't think I was the slightest bit annoying) as his reaction to Piper. He glanced at her like she proved to be a bother. "My arrows are a solidified form of the Mist at its purest form. Your father knew what he was doing when my mother requested them."

Nodding, I was tempted to touch it. Piper slapped my hand away.

"They manipulate the will of person into what they see fit, or what I command. The strength in them is so daunting, even gods fold to their power." The story of Apollo suddenly rang in my head, louder than ever before. I couldn't help gulping. "I presume when Hephaestus gave you the metal, it was his blessing for a safe voyage. That power is strong in the Americas until you leave the land. It will weaken until you arrive to the roots."

Great. So what he was saying was, even though the Mist metal proved to be an awesome cloaking device, we were still defenseless until we hit Greece. Before I had the chance to protest or cuss or even beg for another strawberry, Cupid did the weird thing: he glowed gold, then grew older. His eyes were sharper—more defined. _Sky blue. _His hair—blond—tapered down his shoulder beautifully, and I wondered if he did some Godly shampoo commercials. He looked closer to our age now—eighteen or nineteen.

Would it be TMI if I told you under this table, I was pretty sure I was sporting a boner?

Jason spoke before I could get into detail about it. "You're Eros now. You were Cupid before—weren't you? Why is there such a gap between your forms?"

Eros shrugged, long, feminine fingers tangling in his hair. Now that he was older, you could see what he was wearing: black skinny jeans, pink highlights in his blond hair, two piercings in his ear and a knit sweater with a black bow tie. Eros wasn't just a teenager—he looked like he was a hipster singer from a boy band.

"In Greek Myths, I was known for my antics and foolishness. As the gods and legends transformed to Roman, mortals began depicting me as a child that ran around wearing a diaper and flinging arrows." His voice was as deep as it had been in my dream. Eros wrinkled his nose, gaze still fixated with mine. "At the very least, I wish to be an age where I'm potty trained. _Don't you think that's a fair trade, Leonardo_?"

My ears had turned pink when I realized he'd switched to speaking perfect Spanish. C'mon, coming from a god of love, you have to admit that was a turn-on. I sobered up again when Piper elbowed me in the ribcage, clearly upset.

Eros, too, when he realized what his sister had just done. He raised his head and snapped his fingers. "Very well. Because I find you so _enticing_, Leonardo Valdez, I will provide you with what you seek. When you get back to the warehouse, there will be enough supplies to repair your ship."

I think I was red up to my hair. From the corner of my eye it was clear both Piper and Jason were in as much disbelief of the situation as I was. Trust me, it was a tempting idea to look over my shoulder and see if he was talking to another _Leonardo Valdez._

"In return…" Eros's voice turned husky. I shivered—

"Wait." Piper's voice rose. She then did the stupidest thing you could ever do when you come face-to-face with a god: she slapped him.

Eros fell back, clutching his cheek with a yelp, and Jason and I gawked. If anyone noticed that a girl just slapped a guy hotter than all the One Direction guys combined, they didn't care. The room was still chattering, with weird music and foreign waitresses that took their orders.

"You are _not_ taking my best friend," Piper glared. For the first time, I actually _looked_ at her to see how angry she was. Her face was red, scowl so deep I almost thought it was stuck that way. "What kind of son of Aphrodite _are you_?" Her voice rose with each climbing word, so fierce even _I_ could feel that anger.

When he came back to his senses, Eros's gaze narrowed.

"You use these arrows to _force people _to fall in love! Alter how they are!"

"Piper—" Jason grabbed one of Beauty Queen's arms and I reached for the other, but she was on a roll: toasted, buttered, and very melt-in-your-mouth-y. "Subtl—"

"You're a disgrace," she snapped. "People should fall in love on their own—_not_ because of a stupid god who shoots an arrow in their ass. Mom knows that. They shouldn't be tricked into it…_not_ by the Mist." Piper's multi-colored eyes fell to Jason at the last part, her voice cracking.

"Beauty Queen," I said quietly, eyebrows contorting. Pulling her hand into mine, I squeezed it and knew there was nothing else to say. We knew she was sensitive when the subject was her mother—as much as she respected the Love Goddess, there was still so much more she just _hated._

Jason took her other hand, muttered something in her ear, and urged her to sit down. She did.

"It's just like a Child of Aphrodite, thinking they can put a definition on love." If Eros was angry, he didn't let it show on his face. Instead, there was irritation and a particular smugness, like he was waiting the entire conversation for it to happen. Probably not the slap—Piper had more balls than most of her cabin. "You've crossed me, Piper McLean."

His hand coiled instantly over the nerf gun, something all three of us had forgotten was there. It took less than a second for us to realize it was the bow to his arrows.

"For that, you shall be punished."

Piper's eyes widened. Jason jerked his head, panic settling across his face. "Wait—!"

_POOT. _

It was too late. One pull of his trigger later and Eros had shot _me_ in the forehead with a gold Nerf dart.

**xxx**

**Author's Note: **

Thank you so much for the reviews, guys! I've got a lot of big plans for this story, so I'm glad you're enjoying it so much so far. I'm gonna repeat this again so you know: this is an alternating first-person between Leo and Jason. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed and hope you review! (:


	3. III: Jason

**Chapter III: **Jason

At first, nothing happened. Eros had his nerf gun aimed to Leo's head, and the proof of his shot was the suction cup between Leo's eyebrows. I'd pulled Piper out of the way before Eros could harm her, but _neither_ of us expected Leo to be the victim—especially since the past ten minutes were spent with the minor god of love trying to cop a feel with my best friend. Leo had turned a pasty white, his eyes as wide as Eros's Belgian waffles as they narrowed to the godly peace of foam plastered to his forehead.

I reached over tentatively—then froze. I wasn't sure what to do. "Leo…?"

Eros was the only one who wasn't shocked by what he'd just done. It was on _purpose._ His nerf gun shrank until it was the size of a keychain and he strapped it to the front of his trousers. The dart on Leo's face dissipated into golden dust, and for a second, Leo glowed.

"A much more civil meeting than I expected, _Leonardo Valdez._ I hope to see you soon." Eros leaned over and planted a kiss on Leo's mouth. As their lips touched, Leo made a noise and Eros glowed gold until he disappeared—just like his nerf gun.

I looked to Piper. Piper looked to _me._

At the end of the booth, Leo sat there, still in shock over what had just happened. One: I doubt it was an ordinary thing for a demigod to get kissed by a _god_ and Two: that same god had just shot a _nerf gun_ in his face.

Piper was still dumbstruck over what happened. Swallowing my nerves, I reached over and took her by the hand. Her eyes looked my way, shifting and panicked, and I nudged my head toward Leo. He'd crumbled, still stuck on 'pause' and staring to the next booth over (I took a quick look—it was empty.)

When Piper finally snapped out of it, _she_ was the one to reach over and touch Leo's shoulder. "Leo…?"

"Careful," I said, and my grip tightened over her hand until our knuckles were white. "You don't know _what's_ going to happen—"

Leo looked her way. Straight at her, dark brown eyes dilated. Piper flinched—but from the corner of my eye, I could see she was trying to remain as calm as possible.

"You're going to be okay," she said slowly. "You're _perfectly fine_, Leo." Later, I would have realized she was trying to charmspeak him into believing the last five minutes didn't happen.

I didn't realize it _now_ because Leo's gaze snapped to me. His eyes glazed over, piercing, and…_strong_ and he removed himself from his seat. I let go of Piper's hand and backed up as Leo strutted my way. He was faster.

In a matter of seconds, two blazing hot hands yanked me by the front of my shirt down until Leo could reach my lips. I made a noise, but he seemed to take it as a sign to advance. Leo's hands fisted into my clothes and he pressed up against me until he could throw his arms around my neck. I pulled my head back, dissolving the kiss with one quick _pop_ and looked to Piper, panicked.

"_Guys_?" she squeaked.

"You," Leo's voice dropped an octave. His legs moved against mine, brown eyes in a trance. "Are the _hottest_ thing I've ever seen."

"Wha—_mmmMMmmpphh_!"

He threw us into another kiss, hands tugging at the tail end of my shirt. I did the poor thing of being opened-mouth, to which he stuck his tongue between my teeth. Leo made…made _sounds,_ moaning and heated, and his body temperature hiked ten degrees. I tried to fight him off, but his grip was too tight. Hands roamed around my chest—

Then one of them managed to undo my zipper. I yelped, then without meaning to, pushed Leo away, full force. He fell to the ground, hitting his head against the table, and I scrambled away in shock. Shaking his head, Leo brushed off the impact and clambered to his feet.

"Leo—" Piper grabbed him by the arm, but Leo pushed her away. He prowled toward me, a leer in his gaze and his lips curled against his face. Over his shoulder, I saw Piper regain her footing, and she gazed at us in horror. "Leo, snap out of it!"

I couldn't leave him. Leo was my best friend—the one person whom I told _everything_ to. But like this, the natural thing to do was restrain him. The _gladius_ Hera had given me burned in my coat pocket, but I couldn't draw it out. I couldn't hurt Leo.

That was where I found myself now, standing at the other end of the tiny café with all eyes on us as Leo and I alone were performing the most awkward international incident known to mankind, and with me waiting for something to swallow me up.

Leo molded his hands around my jaw, his grip tight. As he pressed against me the second time, I feel his hard-on pressing up against my leg, and musky breath against my lips. I expected him to say something witty, but even _that_ part of Leo's mind had been clogged. Leo pulled me down for a third kiss, then pushed us further and further away from the restaurant. A sound of distress left my mouth, a-and I pushed against him violently.

Didn't work. Leo knew better a second time, nibbling at my bottom lip. His fingers curled at the seams of my shirt, and every time I tried to push him away, his hands spiked a degree, like he was trying to burn me.

"Stop!" Piper shouted. We toppled out of the café and into the middle of the road. Leo's lips latched onto the crook of my neck and I yelped. He straddled my hips, legs tight around mine, and—his hands reached to yank my shirt off.

"Leo—stop—" I choked, feeling his teeth graze my skin and maneuvered to elbow him in the chest. For some reason, Leo knew I'd do that _exactly, _and grabbed it. He forced my arm over my head in an angle that _hurt _and pressed kisses on my jaw line. I heard a quick _click_ and realized he'd successfully undone my jeans.

Oh my _god._

When warm hands surfaced on bare skin, my body remembered the urgency of the situation. I switched him, quickly remembering every obvious battle tactic to take against an opponent that has _pinned you down, _and sat firmly on him. My _gladius_ unsheathed, I pressed the edge of it against Leo's neck, _panting._

"Whatever Cupid's done to you," I said breathily, "we'll fix it. But _you need to calm down_, or I'll have to use this."

I felt ridiculous. Here the three of us were in the middle of a street in France, and I had my god-stricken best friend pinned to the ground with my _gladius_ digging into his skin. My _mouth_ ached from when he forcibly kissed me and jaw hurt from the pressure.

Yet there Leo lay, brown eyes gazing back like he was good ol' Leo Valdez without an ounce of help. The edge of his lip peaked into a smile—no, a _smirk_—and he bucked his lips. He spoke again, voice husky and moaning. "That's where I want you. _Hazme el amor._ Throw me on a bed and fuck m—"

The Fates must have hated me. They must be cackling in some train station around America and rolling around while they knitted a nice pair of underwear.

In the next minute, Frank had yanked me off of Leo, arms tight until I dropped the _gladius_ to the ground.

"No!" Leo shouted. That…_exotic_ look disappeared from his face, reduced to pain and fear until he looked like a kicked puppy. Percy and Annabeth ran to his side, quick to scan him over for any damage.

"I was flying over the buildings and saw you guys," Frank said hurriedly. His voice peaked into a different octave, alarmed and fearful. He refused to let me go, arms digging under my armpits and shaking. Had the circumstance been different, I knew I'd never want to cross the guy in a wrestling match. "Um, so Hazel and I came as soon as we could—we weren't sure if you got hit by a spell or something."

"Let me go!" My best friend's voice pierced me like an arrow. Leo whimpered miserably, and as I looked over I realized Percy and Annabeth were trying to keep him down to check for wounds. "I _need_ him, I'm so _hard—"_

I turned red. Percy and Annabeth's expressions slacked, and they turned my way.

"He got hit by an arrow," I said quietly. But that still didn't make sense! He'd looked to _Piper_ first and…I was happy _she_ wasn't the victim of this, but still. My head spun, absolutely overwhelmed. It didn't help—now, Hazel, Frank, Percy, and Annabeth were processing what I'd just confessed, and the results were the furthest idea from their mind.

We weren't fighting. Leo was trying to rip my clothes off. I hadn't pinned Leo down to kill him, I'd done it to _restrain_ him.

My lips and his lips were swollen. That only made the situation worse.

"So…Leo's under a love spell now? With _you_?" Leave it to Percy to restate the obvious—he made gestures and pointed, then ran a hand through his hair. "Um, I know he's _bi_ and all, but is he okay with that?"

"I'm _very_ okay with that." Forgotten, Leo managed to get away from both Percy and Annabeth, and proceeded crawling in my direction. He wiped the saliva off his lip and—

Piper hit him in the head with the sheath of her knife. Hard enough for Leo to make a sound and fall to the ground, unconscious.

I stared at her in amazement just as Frank gawked, Hazel placed a hand over her mouth, and the rest of us stared, speechless. Piper strapped the knife back on her belt loop with a trembling hand and looked me over. She'd turned a pasty white, eyes shrouded beneath her hair, and she hugged herself miserably.

"Someone had to do it," Piper said quietly. Her voice cracked.

Through that debacle a crowd of people had formed around us—all very confused, disgusted, or alarmed. Whatever the Mist showed them couldn't have been far from the truth; then someone shouted something Piper hastily translated as, _Police!_

Percy pulled Leo over his shoulder, simultaneously as I shouted at the top of my lungs, "_Run_!"

**xxx**

It took ten minutes to run back to the dock and duck into the abandoned warehouse where the Argo II was anchored. An assortment of sea creatures had gathered around—I'm pretty sure there was a dolphin in a lounge chair. One shout from Percy and all of them scurried away before they could become seafood.

When we lost the guards and managed to board the ship, I explained to all of them what happened: how we came across Cupid in atiny café, how he agreed to give us the supplies to fix the Argo II, and then Leo asked how his arrows worked. Piper picked up the story there, something that surprised me since she'd been so worrisomely quiet during the entire recall. She mentioned how Eros couldn't keep his hands off Leo, the slap, and everything up to what they'd seen. In detail.

I was sitting cross-legged to them, trying hard not to explode with how hard I was blushing. Leo lay at the other end of the training room, tended to and still knocked out. Judging by the size of the bruise on his head, he'd be out for a while.

The room was a mixture of expressions. Percy and Frank looked amused (albeit a little mortified), Hazel seemed speechless, and Annabeth frustrated.

"Great," she said, voice full of deadpan, "Gaea is closing in on Greece and we're stuck in a warehouse in France, with the only person who can fix the ship under a love spell by the Archer of Love himself, and we don't know how long it'll last."

This time, Piper buried her face in her hands. I placed a hand over her shoulders and rubbed circles in her back.

"I'm so sorry," she said.

"Oh, no." Grey eyes twinkled, a frustrated sigh leaving Annabeth's lips as she crossed her arms. "I'd slap him too. This just sucks altogether."

"So what do we do?" Frank surveyed all of us nervously, eyebrows knitting together. "I mean…Leo needs to fix the ship. Not to mention, we…can't really knock him out every time he feels the need to make out with Jason."

"Or worse," Percy supplied. Green eyes looked to me, half-pitying and half-amused. I almost thought I'd slap _him_. "Leo was digging his nails into my skin whenever we pulled him back. I know _I've_ never been hit with one of Eros's arrows—" Annabeth muttered something about his stupidity. He grinned and nudged her. "—but it that typical? Most mortal cartoons show one of Cupid's victims shouting their love for someone else into the sky with butterfly hearts flying everywhere. You know, like Fairly OddParents."

I expected Annabeth to hit him upside the head again; to say something along the lines of, '_You're an idiot, Seaweed Brain.' _Instead, she sighed and rubbed her chin, eyebrows knitting together. She turned to the corner of her gaze until Piper and she were looking at each other. "I have a theory, but…no."

A frown fell across my lips. "What is it?"

She shook her head and leaned back. "Nothing good."

Something you learned quickly back at Camp Halfblood: if Annabeth gave you an ambiguous answer, it was the end of the conversation. I looked to Piper for any ounce of what both girls were thinking, but she refused to look me in the eye. When I turned to Percy, he simply shrugged, unable to narrow down to an answer himself.

"So…," Hazel's quiet voice peeked through the rest of ours. Sometimes she was so quiet that I forgot she was there. "How do we break the spell? If we break the spell, then Leo will come back to his senses…right?"

Annabeth nodded in agreement and rubbed her chin again. "The problem is…there isn't a known tale where someone _has_ broken the spell. Apollo chased Daphne to the ends of the Earth until she begged her father to turn her into a tree. Travis Stoll did a stupid thing a few winters ago and asked about it. He was lucky not to be blinded when Apollo bared his teeth."

"And?" I asked. If there were a way to get through this incident without ever having to mention it to Leo, I think both of us would be a little more relieved.

"And Eros pricked _himself_ with one of his arrows." She shook her head with disdain. "Hate to be cliché, but…apparently love can be so powerful that even a god falters in their presence."

"Yeah," I mumbled. Eros had said the same exact thing.

"There's still the cave," Hazel pointed out. She looked through all of us, eyebrows furrowing. "If we can find the cave, then maybe we can find Eros, or maybe something to break the spell…or something?"

We turned to both Percy and Annabeth, who had been in charge of searching for it. They opened their mouths to answer, but never got the chance.

Leo was waking up.

**xxx**

I was ushered out of the room before Leo could see me. Frank and Hazel had pushed me out before an incident like in the café could happen again, then promptly shut the door. Then…nothing.

Standing there in silence, I heard absolutely _nothing_. There was a quiet groan, a few murmurs, but from what I could gather, Leo sounded perfectly fine. I hesitated, reaching for the doorknob to peek my head through, but I knew if I caused another incident, the team would never forgive me.

It was the first time that I realized because of this spell I may not see my best friend for a very, very long time.

Pressing my back against the wall, I slumped into the ground and drew in a breath. My lungs went numb.

This would have been easier if it was just some random camper back at Camp Halfblood—or hell, even Octavian. If it were Octavian, then I wouldn't mind running for the hills. Leo had been a constant, albeit somewhat irritating presence in my life from the day I lost my memories to now.

Whoever Jason Grace was before I lost my memories, he made it clear he rarely let people in. The Fifth Cohort and Reyna, he saw as family, but I had no memory of him ever telling the basic truth: he felt lonely.

If it was anything Camp Halfblood taught me—what Piper and _Leo_ taught me—it was that it was okay to be vulnerable. Trekking through the wild, fending off Kindly Ones and fulfilling prophecies, you could look over your shoulder and remember there were a hundred other people who had your back. Not that Camp Jupiter hadn't given me the same feeling, but…it was still different. I didn't feel like that guy who destroyed Kronos's throne and slain Krios with my own two hands.

The door clicked open, slowly and steadily as Piper peered through. She looked me in the eye for the first time, then plopped to the ground beside me before burying her head in her hands.

I bit my lip. "How's he doing?"

She smiled bitterly and hugged herself. "Like Leo. As soon as he woke up, he asked what he'd done to make me want to hit him so hard. Then he asked for a strawberry and banana smoothie and an ice pack."

"So he's—?"

"Annabeth mentioned your name. She told him very slowly what had been going down and it was like someone doused him in cold water. I left the room before I could catch anything else, but…" Piper drew a breath. "He was shaking. And shivering and writhing, Jason. Like he was in _pain._"

My stomach flopped. This…wasn't a situation that could be handled with ease. Eyebrows furrowing, I looked between my feet and wrapped a hand around my gladius. "So we find the cave that Leo dreamed about. Maybe we'll find a clue on how to beat this. Or…or a counter-arrow. Maybe Eros is just in there, polishing his weapons or something."

"Not likely," she grumbled miserably under her breath. Then the subject was dropped and we entered silence.

I realized between Leo getting shot in the head with an arrow and running away from guards, I hadn't had the chance to ask how _she _was doing. There was no denying she'd been the one to offend Eros and cause the arrow to be shot. Had none of that happened, we would have the materials to fix the Argo II and back on our way to Greece.

"I let my temper get the better of me," Piper said slowly, "and now my best friend is under a spell and trying to score a home run with my _other_ best friend."

"Hey. Neither Leo and I are blaming you for this." Her comment came with sensibly-placed frustration, but it didn't help my face from turning red. Wrapping a hand over hers, I nudged my leg against Piper's and looked her in the eye. "What happened, happened. In fact, I…I'd rather he was going after _me_ than you." It wasn't that I didn't trust Leo and Piper together. I knew better than to get jealous of that thought—especially since Leo had been trying to help me work up the nerve to talk to her since December.

A small smile struggled Piper's face, beautiful as ever. She looked away, the cutest shade of pink highlighting her cheeks. "Thanks."

"I think what you did was the nuttiest, bravest thing ever." The words fell out of my mouth before I had the chance to stop myself. My cheeks were burning, probably the same shade as hers, and I forced myself to take another step: I…I kissed her on the cheek.

Her eyes widened—I tried to look casual taking in her reaction, but my heart hammering deafened any other senses. If Leo were here (I cringed), he would be _wooping_ and punching me in the arm, going, _'About time, Love Birds!'_

It wasn't the appropriate moment to be holding hands, snuggling against each other, and kissing, but…we were. A smile arched across Piper's face, delicate and sweet. She reached over, arms tossed around my neck, and kissed me on the lips. I kissed her back.

"Ahem." Frank cleared his throat.

Making a noise, Piper and I scrambled away from each other, red in the face and eyes wide. The door had opened halfway, and Frank and Annabeth stared down at us, sheepish and surprised. Piper and I stood to our feet, refusing to look them in the eye, and we smoothed out our clothes.

"Um," I said—my voice came out as a squeak, "how is he?"

Annabeth arched an eyebrow. Her eyes were glued onto _me._ "He's…stable. Calmer than he was on the streets."

I nodded understandingly and placed a hand on the door hinge. "Um, could I see him?"

She looked hesitant, but then nodded. I took maybe one step before she blocked my entry again, a sharpness in her gaze. "Just to see what happens, Jason. If he exhibits…irrational behavior or does something bad, you have to leave the room. We'll have to figure out a way around this."

Form the corner of my eye, I saw Piper bite her lip. She looked to the ground, the guilt returning to her features.

"Okay." I didn't like the way Annabeth put it, but I guess there wasn't another, safe alternative. She led the way back to the other side of the room. Piper followed first, and Frank closed the door behind him. He was red, clearly embarrassed for walking in on us.

"Um," he chimed uncomfortably, "they do say a time of despair drives two able-body parties together."

"Not helping."

"I figured."

Leo looked healthy. He sat against the wall, crouching over his legs with a petite smile on his face. There was nervousness in the way he would speak to both Percy and Hazel, like he was waiting for something to happen, but I doubted either one noticed. The four of us sauntered over, and immediately, Leo cocked his head.

We locked eyes and I could feel my cheeks burn. For the first time since I knew him, I couldn't read my best friend's expression. His hands curled to fists at his sides and he studied me, amazingly quiet.

"How are you feeling?" I asked.

He shivered, the fervor returning to his face. At this stance, I realized how stiff he held his shoulders, words choking in his throat and his cheeks flushed. Brown eyes moved until they were in tune with the movement of my lips. Leo jerked forward, Percy held him back.

"Leo?" Okay. Me talking probably was not the best way to handle the situation. I said his name and his entire body undulated. His eyes widened, the usual crazy look in his eyes replaced with lewdness.

Suddenly, Leo fidgeted and buried his head between his legs. He clamped both hands on his ears and a quiet whimpering sound left his mouth.

"I'm—I'm okay." His voice was raspy, but the way he spoke reminded me of Cupid: wispy and dazed.

Knowing any second Annabeth was going to haul me out of the room, I walked over to Leo and dropped to my knees. He drew in a breath and squirmed. Putting a hand on his shoulder (I ignored the way he recoiled), I squeezed it tightly. More steadily than before, I asked, "Are you okay?"

I would have done this even without the arrow making his head fuzzy. The grip over his shoulder turned my knuckles white, but I think he realized I was trying to get him to calm down—to endure it. Leo drew in a ragged breath, so gruff I grimaced, and tentatively looked up, brown eyes brimming with hesitation and worry.

Annabeth was right—unlike in Brest, Leo seemed calmer than before. But he was still shaky.

"I'm okay," he muttered, still edgy, but he seemed determined to maintain his voice. Still, he pulled away from my form and staggered between Piper and Annabeth. Brown eyes darted everywhere but my face, and Leo's hands jingled with the metallic scraps in his pockets. "I—I can fix the ship. Eros promised to supply us with the correct amount of materials, so, um—" He cursed in Spanish and rocked on his heels.

He was trying _really_ hard to go against this spell.

"We can look for Eros's cave while you work on the ship," Hazel piped up. She stood from her position, a look of concern and sympathy fluttering across her features.

Percy nodded. "Jason and I will go. The further away you two are from each other, maybe um, the better it'll get." He collected himself, then offered me a hand. I gave him a look of surprise, but he was too busy looking at our team to think much of it.

"Any reason just us?" My eyes narrowed.

He shrugged. "Annabeth can make the mathematic calculations, Hazel can move the metal, and Frank is really smart. They'd do more good here."

I cocked my head to Piper—

"And Leo," Percy quipped before I could say something I may regret, "might want a friend. One that's able-bodied and he won't want to throw in bed. Right, Leo?"

A groan left Leo's lips, but looking back I realized how grateful he seemed. Leo crossed his arms and blew a bang out of his face just as Piper smiled gently, hooking arms with our "Repair Boy" and kissing him on the cheek.

I was ninety-nine percent positive Leo wanted to say something, but he was really shaken and…really embarrassed.

"Thanks Perce," mumbled my best friend, tone still guttural and rocky.

I reached out to say something, but never got the chance. Percy grabbed me by the arm as the others left, and pulled me aside.

"C'mon, Superman," he mused, "Let's go find a way to break this spell."

**xxx**

I think after fending off the venti, Percy and I expected to come to some truce. There was no doubt that Percy was a demon when it came to swordplay, and a part of me still itched to spar with him. A weak memory ached for my imperial gold coin, but I knew that would forever be gone. Anyway, between making sure the ship made a clear landing with me manipulating the air and Percy cushioning the plunge into water, we hadn't had much of a chance to talk.

It was clear that Percy and I worked well together in combat. But our personalities made being friends look _impossible._

He had no filter on his mouth. He made a face whenever someone spoke to him. He was every bit the idiot everyone back at Camp Halfblood made him out to be. Still, Hazel, Leo, and even Piper convinced me there was a genuineness whenever he spoke, and he was loyal. _Stupidly_ loyal.

In a way he made me think of Leo, but…I trusted Leo with my life. Literally, seeing as he was the only one I felt I could talk to on this stupid ship. (Don't tell Leo I said that though. He'd kill me about the stupid ship comment.) Knowing I could trust Percy and actually _trusting_ Percy were two concepts I was trying to erase the fine line between.

That's where we were now, exiting the warehouse and walking side-by-side along the coast of the beach. Leo had mentioned earlier there was a Ferris wheel in his dream, but as far as I could tell, Brest was more of a trading post. We decided to avoid locals at a risk of causing another incident and spoke very little to each other.

Percy had taken his sneakers off, now soaking his toes in wet sand as water washed along the shoreline. He took in a deep breath and sighed. There was a little hermit crab that looked angry when Percy unintentionally kicked it, but I swear it bowed and squealed when it realized it was the son of Poseidon.

"You may find this offensive," Percy mused, "but I finally felt safe the moment we hit the water."

"Offense taken," I said wryly. He'd explained to me how a child of Poseidon was destined to get shot out of the sky if he ever entered the air, but with Percy's smartass comments, I almost wanted to electrocute him myself. Again, I reminded myself, better to catch Percy on a good day than bad. Father may be "King of the Gods," but his power was equal to his brothers'.

Any ounce of our conversation stopped there. Twenty minutes into our walk after we left the docks, I realized _I _was being the uncooperative one.

"Sorry." This time, I looked to Percy. He really did look at peace with his feet soaked in seawater. It was his freedom; like the way I could spend hours on the deck of the Argo II when we were in the sky. The guilt squeezed my chest.

Fortunately, Percy hadn't seemed deterred by my earlier comment. Instead, he dropped his shoes into the sand and started putting them on. "You don't like me very much."

Um. I opened my mouth to speak, but nothing came out. Suddenly the sand looked _very_ interesting.

"That's okay. Thalia and I didn't like each other very much either." Percy wrinkled his nose and stepped out of the beach water. He dusted sand off his jeans and crossed his arms before looking to me expectantly. "In fact, if I remember correctly, she electrocuted me. _A lot._ Not accidentally, most of the time. Took us a giant Sun school bus, a hobo named Fred, and a mountain before we could get along."

"I knew I liked my sister," I mused. A second later I realized the implication behind my words and tried to apologize. Percy waved his hand, like he got that a lot. "It's…not that I hate you. This…this thing about Leo is just…" My voice faded off.

"Yeah," Percy said. An ebony eyebrow cocked beneath his hair and he joined my side. "Leo means a lot to you, doesn't he?"

I shrugged nonchalantly and turned toward the coast. Seagulls flew above, their sounds echoing into the sky. There…wasn't a way to admit this to Leo or Piper, really. Every time I tried talking to Piper, my chest did a double take and my heart got clogged in my throat. Leo and I…we weren't good at the guy talks. He stammered whenever I marveled at his work.

Might as well tell the one guy that _knew_ what it was like not to have his memories.

"It's like, going to sleep in darkness, just waiting for the memory to start," I said. This…was difficult to do. It…was hard to look him in the eye. "And then reliving it. You said gorgon's blood helped you get your memories back. But…I-I keep wondering if even now, I have all my memories."

Percy nodded. There was a grimness to his face and I realized, he _did_ understand what I was going through. He urged me to continue.

"Leo has been there for me since I woke up on the bus. He doesn't look at me as some big hero. He mocks me—sort of like how he made fun of you last night for talking to horses." I shook my head, a soft chuckle brimming from the back of my throat. "I go to sleep afraid that when I wake up, all my memories will be gone again. But when I open my eyes and see Leo and Piper every day, I remember it's real. All of it."

Percy was silent. He took my words with obvious acknowledgment, nodding, before he stuffed his hands in his pockets. "That's deep, bro."

"As the ocean," I agreed warily. "Was it the same way for you?"

He shook his head. "I forgot everything. But _not_ Annabeth. Never her."

We continued our walk along the shore, and he explained to me his experience. I hadn't realized how many differences there were—from how he woke up in the Wolf House training with Lupa after eight months of slumber and following a vague trail from Juno, a goddess that was on neither Percy's _nor_ Annabeth's good side. Then, the way he had such an attachment to Annabeth—I knew she was heartbroken in all these eight months, but I had more respect than I already did, for why they refused to leave each other's side.

"It's funny," Percy commented. We reached a more populated portion of the beach, "Annabeth was the hook that reeled me back into my memories. But you make it sound like Leo and Piper are what reeled you into _reality_."

I took in what he said, then nodded slowly. "I can't believe you just made a fishing reference."

"Me neither." Percy wrinkled his nose. "I'm about to have this good metaphor about a harpoon and a harness. I can't believe I know what a _metaphor _is."

We shared a laugh despite knowing how ill-timed it was for the situation. Slowly, mine tapered off and I looked behind us. Somehow we ended up far along the beach near a boardwalk where people ran around having a good time. Through the mixture of people, there were a few people that stuck out like tourists.

Percy touched my shoulder and pointed to the dock that extended away from carnival rides. Beneath everything, there was a cove that jutted out into the ocean. "You think that's it?"

I nodded. "No doubt."

**xxx**

You would think a few people, kids, or authority figures would notice two kids skipping some rocks toward a cave. Instead, whenever Percy or I was convinced someone would spot us, the few that did looked straight through us and ran away. Talking about my memories seemed to ease the tension a little bit, but both of us were more concerned about Leo's safety.

When we finally got to the bottom, I couldn't help myself. "Why do you and Leo get along so well?"

He seemed genuinely shocked by the question. Percy scratched his head, running his hand through wavy black hair, then shrugged. "I dunno. It just came naturally."

I felt ridiculous for accusing him of something—like, he stole my best friend and I couldn't get him back. It made no sense, but it irked me for who knows how long. If it showed on my face, Percy only grinned, that amusement returning to its usual place.

"I don't know," he reiterated. "As happy as I am that I can see Annabeth again, we're on a quest. There's only so much nerd talk I can take before my head starts spinning." Grimacing, he scratched his head and led the way forward. "Besides, I don't believe being in being on a ship with teammates and not getting to know them. Piper and I get along but I don't see you giving me crap about _that._"

I made a gesture with my hand, demanding he shut up and continue.

"Leo saw me training and thought it was the coolest thing ever." Percy shrugged. "Did you know the guy's like, a genius?"

Leo mentioned learning Morse code and higher math from his mother. Beneath his love of food and all things girl-related, I hadn't given his intelligence much of a thought. I realized if I said that out loud, I would have sounded like a Class A jerk.

"I was good friends with another guy from his cabin. Beckendorf." Percy shrugged again, suddenly looking really uncomfortable with the subject. "Besides. He told me he liked hanging out with me because I reminded him so much of _you._"

Well, if that wasn't a thought that made me sick to my stomach. I held my tongue, but was sure I was turning green in the face. Percy nodded understandingly, rolling his eyes. Leo had to be out of his mind if he thought Percy and I were even the slightest bit alike.

We dropped the subject there and walked further until the boardwalk disappeared, the Ferris wheel only barely visible. Percy uncapped Riptide as I grabbed my _gladius_, and we snuck toward the entrance.

What we saw caught us off guard.

Percy blinked and elbowed me in the arm. "Um. You sure _this_ is the cave that belonged to Eros in Leo's dream?"

"Well…he _is_ the son of Aphrodite." We were both thinking the same thing—the Aphrodite Cabin had stowed away on our boat and totally Malibu-Barbie'd Eros's cave. Maybe not the pink, but the cave looked like it'd been carved into a cobblestone house fit for one, with a bright pink birdhouse hanging off the door and a welcome mat.

"This is _not_ a cave," Percy said flatly.

"It's close," I argued. As ridiculous as it sounded—I made a side note to tell Hazel to loosen the amount of caffeine we let Leo have. On the door hung a piece of notebook paper that looked like it'd been crumpled in someone's pocket. Percy snatched it off the door and squinted.

"To…To Cpu—"

"Let me see it." I read the letter aloud.

_"To Eros:_

_Sorry about stealing your Nerf Gun. Didn't mean to shoot that police officer._

_Reloaded for you, please don't be mad._

_Love,_  
_A._

_PS: Put the key under the welcome mat, just like you like it."_

Percy frowned. "Who's A?"

I looked to him thoughtfully, then remembered some ridiculous show Leo had gotten the entire camp obsessed with while he was building the Argo II. Shaking my head, I sighed. "Someone even Annabeth can't figure out."

Shrugging, Percy turned over the welcome mat just like 'A' had said and revealed a simple silver key. He put it through the door knob and with a simple, _click_! it opened.

The first thing that drew your eye was the assortment of Nerf Guns that decorated the walls. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out Eros must have had an obsession with them. The room was definitely bigger than what the outside perceived, with elegant wooden floors and lush furniture—it looked like a house my grandparents would have had, given if I had grandparents. The entire place smelled like lemongrass.

"Mm," Percy hummed. "Vanilla."

I blinked. "It's lemongrass."

"No, it's vanilla."

I decided it would have been ridiculous if we started arguing about the scent of the room. Besides, Eros was the god of…_sensual_ love. When _that_ fact hit me, I had a feeling I was missing something more obvious than before.

We surveyed the different rooms, but there was no sign of life. No traps, no mind tricks. I half expected to accidentally prick myself and suddenly be in love with Percy (to that thought, I shuddered.)

"Hey, look over here." Percy called me over into the tiny kitchen. Wine bottles hung from one of the shelves, each printed with the name, _Ambrosia_, and the year that it came from. Next to the sink was a giant metallic case filled with all assortments of nerf darts. Percy tapped it with his sword, and instantly it transformed into a quiver of arrows.

It had gone unnoticed in the form of a briefcase, but there was now a large, bright yellow gift bow tied to the shaft of one of the arrows with a sticker of an obnoxious smiling sun that said, _"With Love!"_

Tentatively, Percy plucked one of the arrows from the quiver—a red one that matched the pigment of a rose. His cheeks flushed, eyes widened, and immediately Percy dropped the arrow to the floor. My grip on my _gladius_ tightened, but Percy simply turned to me. "Jason, do you remember what color arrow Cupid shot Leo with?"

I thought about it and shook my head. "No. None of us expected Leo to be the one shot. All I remember is, Cupid kissed him, then…Leo was kissing _me."_

My face turned pink. Give me a break—in one day, I'd gone further with my best friend than I have my entire life, and I finally kissed the girl I really liked. I deserved to be in shock.

He grimaced, nudging the arrow toward me. "Hold it."

The way he reacted made me hesitate, but I wasn't going to chicken out. The arrows came in three forms: a gold more stunning than Imperial Gold, pure black, and the rosy red. Carved into the shaft of the red one was one simple word: _Tentigo. _The instant I held it, I dropped it.

There'd been an instant rush of adrenaline. My palms had gotten sweaty, my cheeks flushed, and ears heated. Before I could struggle for a shallow breath, I'd thrown it back into the quiver.

The pure black arrows were engraved with a simple word too: _Odisse._ The gold one—_Amor._

"Tentigo, Odisse, Amor," I murmured. "Roughly translated, each one means, 'lust,' 'hate,' and, 'love.'"

Without warning, Percy picked up the golden one. He made a face, then shrugged.

"How do you feel?" I asked.

"Like…I really wanna be with someone." He added as a second quip, "Annabeth. But I always want to be with her. These must be the arrows he's known for but—yeah. This is a rush…possibilities."

It was more than _just_ a bad idea to be snooping through a god's things, but we'd already concluded Eros was not currently present. I picked up the arrow from Percy's hands and felt my heart skip a beat. The sensation was close to the _tentigo_ arrow but more…heartwarming. It made no sense, but…for some reason, all the walls I'd created in my mind were suddenly lifted.

There were…possibilities. Like, why couldn't yellow and red make the color purple? Why couldn't 2 + 2 = 8?

"Children of Venus are known as children of possibilities," I muttered. "I guess what they mean is, love…doesn't really have a boundary. Not in the forms you usually expect."

"That would explain why Aphrodite thought it'd be a good idea for me to see my first and only love after beating up the Minotaur," Percy mused. He crossed his arms and looked at me expectantly. It took a moment for me to realize he was waiting for me to put the arrow down.

I couldn't. It was like on the other end—on the tips of my _fingers_, I could hear someone else's heart beating. My heart squeezed and I could feel it taking my breath away.

Once that realization hit me, I nearly threw it onto the counter. Whoever thought _war_ was dangerous never tampered with the principles of love. Luckily before I could even work myself up to being embarrassed, Percy only guided us further in the household. Judging by the uneasy look on his face, I assumed he had to deal with Love firsthand, too.

A…_very vague_ memory of discussing love with Venus came to mind. I could feel my heart pounding in my chest—muscle memory from our meeting. She had said something, back when I was…ten? Eleven? And I knew it was upsetting—it was something that kept me from working up the nerve to ask Reyna out. Probably any relationship I'd ever have. I just couldn't remember right now, _what._

"So," Percy said in quiet conversation, "That gold arrow. Not really how Leo was acting."

Snapping out of my thoughts, I nodded carefully. Right. Remembering Leo made my head tingle.

Then I realized what he was implying. My lip twitched. "He…acted more like the…" _The red arrow._

"Yeah," he said shortly. Silence. He was thinking. "Do you think that means anything?"

Based on how it could affect Leo? Actually, how it could affect…us? I wasn't sure what my face was doing—blanching from the thought of Leo coming after me for possibly all eternity. Blushing because _my best friend would be coming after me for all eternity._

"Maybe we could use the hate arrow to counteract what happened." Percy stopped in front of the bedroom door, arms crossed. "Or…something."

That…seemed like a longshot, I'm sure we both knew. He was just trying his best to throw out suggestions. Shaking my head, I looked back to the counter where the quiver of arrows returned into the form of a metallic case full of nerf darts. "Annabeth says that he's a god that gets offended easily. I doubt we'll be on his good side if we steal his stuff."

Percy frowned. He muttered something under his breath about the Stoll Brothers, then said nothing.

As ridiculous and hopeless as it sounded, something new caught my eye. The bedroom door had been opened whenever we first arrived, but I assume through our search one of us had closed it. Hanging right above the doorknob, just like the front door, was a rose red sheet of paper with gold embroidery. I snatched it off the door and read it aloud.

"'It would be stupid to think you wouldn't barge in through my front door if no one answered.'" I froze and looked to Percy. He rotated his hand, telling me to go on. "'I'm in Paris on duty. Don't think you're off the hook easily. The more you search, the less likely I'll respond.'" At the end of the letter was an intricately signed, 'E.'

"Ugh." Percy blew a bang out of his eye, groaned, and looked over the letter itself. I caught a whiff of lemongrass. "Why is it gods feel like they're entitled to throw fits? They're a bunch of big _babies._"

Just then, a loud boom of thunder shook the entire house. The scent of rain filled my nose, even if we were inside. Killer to be the son of the Lord of the Sky. Apparently just about anything Percy said managed to piss my father off.

"No idea," I confessed. I reread the letter again, the scent of lemongrass filling my nose, and then gulped. "But…one thing's clear. If we want to save Leo and make sure he comes out of it okay…we've got to go to Paris."

**xxx**

**Author's Note: **

Yay, we're three chapters in and Mark of Athena comes out on Tuesday. :D Thanks so much for still reading, or—hi, new readers! So, I wanted to make a few things clear that you probably already deduced: Whatever happens in Mark of Athena most likely won't be brushed upon in this story. Maybe a few things would be mentioned, but as you can tell, they're already off and away from anything that could effect the Argo II. It'll just be easier that way without weaving details in from the book. So, the story will read as though it was coming right after Son of Neptune.

Also, I've gotten one or two reviews that mention small details pertaining to the other books, like Frank's lactose intolerance or Hazel's and his talent to speak a dialect of French. It's a minor detail and I won't belittle it, and I may stand corrected in MoA, but remember that the story is told from Leo and Jason's point of views and alternating. Don't worry, the books are fresh on my minds, so I know a bit of what I'm doing. But so you know what's up! I'm so glad we made it to chapter three, and I hope you'll keep following! (:


	4. IV: Leo

**Chapter IV: **Leo

I'd been told by everyone what had happened after Cupid shot me: apparently I'd been kissed by a god (sure, I can get a _god_ to like me, but a girl? Just _one_? Nope! Either they're bitchy Ice witches or have sworn off men—sheesh), tackled my best friend to the ground, and kissed him. Not just kiss him though—I stuck my tongue down his throat, dry-humped him, and (mortifyingly enough) tried to stick my hands down his pants. You can thank Piper for the traumatic, graphic scenes.

The sad thing is, I didn't have trouble believing them. I couldn't remember the moments right after I got shot, but as soon as Annabeth said Jason's name—oh, _god_ just how _amazing_ that name sounded—I could feel my stomach flop. My throat went dry. My body _simmered_ and I licked my lips.

The way his _name_ sounded. Jason Grace. _God_s_, _it just rolled off the tongue. A freaking _orgy in my ears._

I thought about those eyes—electrifying, like the moment he looked at me, lightning would strike down and zap away our clothes. The way he flushed—how that adorable stapler-scar on his lip just _curled._ Ugh—have you ever seen the guy after he trained? Hot. Sweaty, soaked in his own bodily fluids with his face stained red…after intense sword practice. He would pant, shallow breathes leaving his lips and just…_smile_ like a goddamn _god._

Just imagine that smile, sweet and flushed and lewd as he peeled off his shirt and flung his pants t…t-to the other side—

"Leo—Leo!"

Hazel snapped me out of my thoughts. In that instant I realized she was shouting—

"Sorry!" I shouted, cheeks flaming red. "Sorry, _sorry_!" The metal sheet she'd lifted off the ground, she and I were supposed to bend together; me with my fire and her with her badass-Toph skills. I could feel Leo Jr. digging uncomfortably in my jeans, begging to do the wave, and my body temperature had risen so high that smoke shot through my hair like a chimney shoot. What she screamed about, however, was the fact I managed to catch the Mist metal sheets on fire.

I flapped at it just like I flapped my hair to make the fire go away. Luckily with my immunity to fire and the fact it wasn't _too_ big, both went away immediately. Once it was gone and I was finished apologizing, I…I fell back behind me and just stared at the metal sheet with disbelief. This was the seventh burn mark imprinted on the material.

The Mist metal sheets were incredibly delicate—the Hephaestus Cabin and I realized this the first moment I tried to bend it. Since then, the cabin decided it'd be better to use actual tools, and after a while, I was able to use my own flames. It needed _perfect precision_ with absolute concentration—

Two things that right now, I had absolutely _neither_ of.

It'd only been a few hours since Percy and Jason left to find Eros's whereabouts. Every time I thought about it, I thought about Jason—which on a _normal_ day wouldn't matter, but with my head ingested with some weird magical arrow _aphrodisiac_…this happened.

I thought about his eyes. About his face. About his—

"Shut up," I said hastily under my breath, then pressed my palms on my face. "Shut up, shut up, _shut up._"

I fell to my back, groaned miserably and refused to get up. It…_scared_ me, knowing I'd blacked out after Eros shot me. I didn't want to believe them. I almost _didn't_, until all those thoughts about Jason just came flying through me. From the distance, I could hear Hazel drop the metal sheet back on the heap Eros had gifted us before Piper pissed him off, then light footsteps as she came my way.

"Maybe you should take a break," she said softly. Peaking from my fingers, I saw her kneel at my side, concern fluttering in her features.

"No can do, Ms. Levesque," I murmured.

With the entire cabin it would have taken _two weeks_ to fix the ship. At the fastest, a few days non-stop. They were like, hardcore engineers and technicians. Right now I had a girl that could conjure the greatest riches ever, a person who could change shape and handle a bow and arrow, a hot Cherokee supermodel, Aquaman's son, and a human lightning rod.

The last one, by the way, that even _thinking_ of caused a _lightning rod in my pants._

That thought made my cheeks burn, and I'm pretty sure my shirt was fairly close to catching on fire. Sure, there was Annabeth, who knew a thing or two about constructing monuments and sites, but that's two people trying to fix a ship before the Giants and Gaea could get to Greece. I could probably get the ship working in a few days nonstop, but if my mind traveled to my best friend every other second, I wasn't going to get much done.

I'd been trying to resist it. The way Annabeth described the situation, it was like I was finally sober from a night of drinking. Um…not that I tried it firsthand. More like crazy relatives the times I had to deal with them when I was little. Apparently there was little you could do to resist a god.

Not thinking about Jason and _especially_ not thinking about Jason in _bed_ stressed out my mentality. I wasn't going to let it become a crutch—something I needed that desperately. Cupid was a _bitch._ Gods!

(It was probably a good thing I was thinking this, instead of blabbing it out loud like I normally do. I don't want to get hit with another arrow from like, Festus's head or something.)

I liked my best friend. And not the girl one—the hot blond one with a sexdorable smile and flashing blue eyes and—

Taking Hazel off guard, I flopped onto my stomach and bit one of my fingers. Hard.

_I liked my best friend. _I didn't remember when it started—probably when I learned to be best friends with him again, and he tried to apologize for what happened at Medea's crazy shopping center. Maybe one of those nights when I'd fall asleep at Bunker 9 and he'd be the one to move me to the cot, then stay by my side when I woke up from my nap.

Somewhere in my memories I knew I fell in love with Jason Grace. But when _like_ turned to _love_, I shoved the idea in the furthest part of my mind, sealed it in a box, and tried to burn it. Even in my head, I was apparently immune to fire.

The thing was, Piper and Jay were hopelessly head-over-heels for each other. When they weren't separately keeping me company in Bunker 9, they were doing it together. Each one came to me for love advice, and since Day One, I hadn't minded.

Being shot in the head by Cupid was like a bitchslap to the face—the bitch being my feelings. Other than having to skip out on most of the camp's festivities, I'd been trying really hard (and _succeeding_) pushing those feelings aside. Stay ahead of the sadness. Stay ahead of the _feelings._

"You're a really odd sight when you're brooding," Frank remarked, like my entire mind-rant hadn't radiated with _fierce intimidation._

"Shut up, baby man," I said half-heartedly. My feelings weren't in it though. Looking down to my finger, I realized there was a relatively painful indent on the flesh. Very violent bite marks. I hid it before either one could see, sat up, sighed, and screamed.

Hazel and Frank jumped back, caught off guard, but then I started alternating between English and Spanish.

The general basis was: _HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO GET AN OPERATING SHIP IN LESS THAN A WEEK BEFORE MOTHER EARTH ATTACKS GREECE WHEN ALL I WANT TO DO IS TOUCH JASON GRACE?_

The, "Touch Jason Grace" part managed to stay in English, and I got to my feet, pacing back and forth with steam smoking from my ears. You wouldn't believe it when I said it was Annabeth and Piper who grabbed me by both arms.

They hooked elbows with me, and Piper's lips contorted into a frown. "That's enough, Leo."

I couldn't look her in the face. Piper was like a sister to me and I felt…_disgusting_ in this situation.

Annabeth heaved a sigh, short and pertinent before she let go of my arm and allowed Beauty Queen to deal with me. "I know…we've all been pressuring you about this ship…mostly _me_, but you're not in working condition. You look like you're going to barf at any moment."

"Thanks. You're pretty too."

A comment like that normally earned me a death glare and a punch to the arm, but she was in no joking mood. Actually, looking _her_ in the face, I realized she was genuinely concerned about what was going on.

"It's been a long day. You've be had to deal with a lot and you're under a lot of pressure." Annabeth's eyes narrowed. "It's not ideal, but…we'll just have to get the ship fixed as soon as possible, after we get _you_ back to normal ASAP. Otherwise…"

I didn't want to hear her say it. I knew she was going to continue with, '_Otherwise, we'll have to leave the ship and go by feet.' _I spent _months_ building the Argo II. It was my _baby._ There was no way I was going to leave it behind when something minor as some crazy she-harpies and giant coffee clouds attacked it.

Piper rubbed circles in my back and her voice enticed me—almost enough for me to forget I was under this stupid love spell. "You should try and get some sleep. We'll wait up for Percy and J—the other two, and figure out things from there."

It was pathetic of me to whimper. Had it been any other Beauty Queen or person, I wouldn't have crumpled like I did in front of Piper. I wasn't kidding when I said she was like a sister to me. Even with the Mist altering our memories at the Wilderness School, after careful extraction, we knew for sure we'd been best friends since the day we met.

So, I made sounds, face pressed against her shoulder, and whined. Being a little more petite than me, she stumbled with my weight pressed against her, but continued to pat my back.

"Sleep. Okay?" She asked. I didn't need a second opinion—probably because she was charmspeaking me so well.

So without protest, I stumbled back onto the ship with Piper on my tail, an arm tucked warmly over my torso. I kept my eyes on my feet, kicked the door open to the boys' quarters and climbed the bunk into my bed. One-by-one I stripped, throwing my jacket, shirt, socks, and shoes to the ground until I was left in my pants. Piper watched, quiet as ever.

We looked at each other from across the room. All the stress and frustration I'd felt over the past few days now made me sleepy. Hard to make a demigod with ADHD feel sleepy. I had my head pressed against the pillow and Piper had her hands knotted behind her back.

"I'm sorry," she said quietly. For the tenth time since the guys had left. I wonder if they'd killed each other yet.

"I know," I replied, voice groggy. I meant it.

You didn't understand how close Jason, Piper, and I were. After all we'd been through, we considered ourselves our own little family. Piper forced herself away from her father, Tristan McLean, to protect him. He did the same thing. Jason was taken away from his mother and sister when he was _two_ and was ripped away from the home he grew up in. I'd been running from orphanage-and-orphanage until they caught me and threw me in Wilderness School. We were like this really weird family made up of a model, a lightning rod, and a factory worker that just fit.

It was selfish of me to be so grumpy because I knew Piper would _never_ overlook either one of our feelings. I sat up in the bed and ushered her over. "C'mere."

Pulling her into a hug, I made sure she knew I wasn't angry. Not with her, anyway. I wanted to slap Cupid myself after all that went down. Who cared if they were Belgian waffles with melt-in-your-mouth strawberries and powdered sugar? I certainly didn't. I think Piper was the type of girl Mom would have wanted me to end up with: strong, proud, and happy with herself.

She hugged me back, then pulled away, this tiny, crooked smile spread across her lips. Her multi-colored eyes shimmered beautifully (well duh, she was _beautiful_). "So…we kissed."

Obviously my brain was still stuck on family mode. I stared at her a second, eyebrows touching, and scratched my head. "I'm preeeetty sure that's what they call a _hug_, McLean. Otherwise I've totally kissed you more times than Jason has. And I'm winning."

Luckily that won a bigger smile and a punch to the arm. Piper looked to me oddly, her look saying, '_you're ridiculous_," before she climbed to the top of the bed.

After that incoherency, it didn't take a genius to realize what she was talking about. But—I suddenly felt my rib cage close in on my chest and the words choke in the upper half of my esophagus. My blood ran cold and it took everything in me not to frown or throw something or…cry. All I managed was this squeaky, "Oh."

"Jason and I kissed," she said slowly, and there was happiness radiating in her features. I shuddered.

Well, I-I was happy for them. But this wave of emotion surfaced through me. I couldn't tell what my face was reading, but I realized Annabeth was right: I had this sudden urge to puke my guts out.

If it wasn't for the fact Piper was the child of the Love Goddess, I don't think she would have sensed my uneasiness. She gasped, clasping a hand over her lips, then backed away. "Oh—is it the arrow? Leo I'm sorry—"

"N-No," I cut her off. I was trying to separate how I was really feeling from how the _arrow_ was making me feel. Struggling hard to laugh and ease the tension, I found myself failing. Hard. "Gods, you…you're really sensitive to this, aren't you?"

The way Piper bit her lip and looked to me led me to the conclusion, _yes_, Piper totally could.

So I seconded my question. "Is that a Child of Aphrodite thing?"

She shrugged. "Maybe. Look—" Drawing a breath, Piper held her head high and kissed me on the cheek again. It was a brother-sister thing. "This…I don't care what you say. But this is my fault and I'm going to be the one to pay for it. If…If you need anything, just ask me, okay?"

I rubbed the cheek where she kissed me and looked to her warily. Having Piper as my best friend made me the luckiest guy in the world—even if the pit of my stomach burned with jealousy. I forced that feeling away, instead focusing on the fact that this, I actually remember Eros saying clearly, was her punishment. Her soon-to-be boyfriend forced together with her best friend. Most Children of Aphrodite probably crumpled at that thought—something Piper was much stronger than.

Nodding, I tucked myself back beneath my blanket (it wasn't anything fancy, something stewardesses give you at the airport) and stared at her as she walked out of the room. Piper's kaleidoscope eyes looked over my form before she closed the door.

Her footsteps echoed; a gentle _tap-tap_ as she joined the others.

Staring at the modest ceiling above me, I spent the first ten minutes counting the shadows that showed up when I moved my hands. The bite mark from earlier still hadn't gone away—it was a little red since I underestimated how hard I bit it.

Burying it under my pillow, I closed my eyes and tried to fall asleep.

Except…that didn't happen. Not in the slightest.

Closing my eyes, I saw blue. Sky blue with the whitest gleam—the kind that made you stop what you were doing for the day and look up around you where the panorama was painted with strong clouds. Birds flying above sounded like laughter. _Jason's _laughter.

His eyes set my heart on fire; let my heart pound and burst. His laughter grazed my skin and made it tingle. That way he smiled—that rare one that drew your whole soul in—took my breath away.

I bit my finger. Harder than before until I bruised it to the bone and tasted metallic on my tongue.

_Electrifying. Life sparked in those eyes, stirring a mad storm. Laughter was a chuckle on my jaw line, lips wet on my ear and fingers padding down my hip, through the hem of my boxers—_

I bit a second finger, heard a quiet _snap_, but didn't feel it. It was a numbing sensation—something that drew me out before I was pulled back in.

A whimper. _Mine, _and a name said in a moment of pleasure—

This time I spared the finger-biting. Rolling off the bed and not-caring that I nearly cannonballed into the ground, I stumbled toward the shower for a long and _very cold_ shower.

**xxx**

I stood in the shower for what seemed like hours. Looking at the nice dragon-shaped clock on the headboard, I realized it'd only been about twenty minutes—but, hey. I was a demigod with ADHD with thoughts running through my head five hundred-words a minute. Every word described the structure of Jason's face. The way he furtively smiled if I told a stupid joke. How _hot_ he looked, _gods_, when we woke up in the morning and his hair was tousled everywhere.

He'd get this dazed look in his face, the pitch of his voice dropped half an octave as he smiled lazily and muttered good morning.

Leo Jr. was staring me in the face—hard, throbbing, and waving like an old friend. My jaw clenched—I wanted to choke him.

As water dripped onto my skin, it boiled into steam, completely overlooking why I was under it in the first place. It drenched my hair so my curls looked like a wet dog's, and once in a while I'd get cold flashes between my body temperature rising.

It wouldn't go away. Not just the erection, but this…th-this _desire. _This _need_ to touch Jason, the lump in my throat and the way my entire body wanted to _touch _him.

The showers were built just like Camp Halfblood—community showers with a curtain to separate everyone. There were three different ones—assembling this thing took me maybe a day at most. To me, it was like someone handed me an eight-year-old's jigsaw puzzle and asked me to solve it. I was lucky everyone else was so busy being _concerned_ about me to realize I was in the shower. Figured. I finally got someone to care about me and I'm in too much pain to reap the glory!

My heart hammered in my chest, cheeks burned, and hair occasionally set ablaze. The last one was getting put out by water.

I _needed_ Jason. Gods, I _needed_ his touch, I-I needed to kiss him, to nibble on that jawline—to touch his bare skin and curl Jason Grace's flesh between my finger nails. My teeth clattered—another cold flash, and I bit the knuckle of my middle finger. Hard.

_Gods…_

A whimper left my throat. Beneath my eyelids, the sensation _burned_—something I thought I'd never feel. It stung, hurt so fucking _much._

Then…th-that kiss. That _kiss_ Piper told me about ripped my heart out. Under normal circumstances I would have cheered them and called them Love Birds. But the thought of Jason being someone else's—someone other than _mine_—made me want to puke; to crawl in a hole and die; to jump off this ship right now and hit my head in dirty, hard cement.

I sunk my teeth hard into a second knuckle, smelling the crisp scent of fire incinerating my fingernails and tasting metal.

Taking in a ragged breath, I pressed my forehead into the cold shower tile, closed my eyes, and put my hand to better use.

**xxx**

I calmed down a bit after the shower. Cold showers had never been something I prioritized in the past, but the way my body temperature and affiliation with fire reacted, I decided they were _terribly, terribly ineffective. _Now I was getting cold flashes that would _hopefully_ go away in the next hour with my head still pounding and a permanent scowl on my face.

Whoever said release of sexual tension was the best way to be happy, they were _wrong._

My knuckles stung from alternating cold and hot water and I'm forty-percent sure I just violated myself with all thoughts of…you-know-who.

Redressing in a Camp Halfblood shirt and my boxers, I was more determined than ever to take a nap and hide my face beneath my airport blankey. I felt _miserable._ Like I had lain down for maybe a few minutes and some inattentive Party Ponies thought my face was a toilet. I was too miserable to even remark how my face would be a _beautiful_ toilet.

Edging closer to our quarters, I realized I could hear voices coming out of the room.

And to add on my poor, crappy situation, Jason was leaning against that door, completely detached from the rest of the situation.

The lump in my throat grew into an unimaginable size. My mouth went dry, looking at that _delicious_ guy standing there, with a gladius hotly dangling off his belt and this somber look in his militaristic eyes. Fingers curling in themselves, I—

I winced because the sting from my bite marks was getting to me.

Also, I was never the quietest person in the world. My pants dropped to the ground, creating this dull _thud_ against the wooden floor, and Jason jumped from his sight. His composure morphed and his demeanor transitioned into shock.

_Gods_, it was hot shock.

"Uh—_L-Leo_," he stammered, and his face flushed pink with embarrassment. "Aren't you in there?"

I shook my head. "I was taking a cold shower."

Freeze frame.

That sentence ran through my head like a marquee—big, flashing lights and some trumpets for dramatic effect. The horror had to be showing in my eyes—my face simmered with heat, and I stared at Jason, who stared back. If possible, that glowing skin of his flushed a darker shade of red, adorable blond eyebrows knitting together and mouth ajar.

_Please._ Teenage guy, _cold shower. _It did _not_ take a genius to break apart what that meant.

My eyes squeezed shut, throat tightening again. I expected him to just walk off, mildly confused and very traumatized. After all, I'd apparently kissed the guy—_which_, by the way, was not a sensation I remembered. Memory was a fucking _bitch_, right up there with Cupid.

Instead—as I peeked through one eye—Jason just stood there, still trying to process the sentence. I doubted the Twelfth Legion ever taught him the procedure for when your best friend got hit with Cupid's love arrows and suddenly wanted to fuck you. Or be fucked—uh, th-that detail we weren't far enough along with yet. (_Just yet_, said this stupid whisper in my head.)

"How are you feeling?" he asked quietly.

I deposited breath, fingers digging into my palms. If I did that, I could keep my focus. Enough to think of something rational to say. "Like crap."

My entire body was trembling—I got that sensation when a flicker of fire lit up in my hair. Jason stared at it—either amused or nervous, but for the most part very uncertain of what to do. I wanted to push him into a wall, drag his pants to his ankles and give him a—

Left pinky finger digging into left palm. Drawing a breath, I trotted forward with uneasy nerves.

"We figured out a plan," Jason tried to say casually. His eyes scrutinized me head-to-toe three or four times, like he was trying to find a weak point to make me crack and break. The blush on his face hadn't subdued in the slightest, and had I been in a more coherent state, I probably would have laughed at him.

Jason was shy. You had to be close friends with the guy to realize this, but underneath that_ Junior Lord of the Sky _business, he was very reserved and kept to himself. At first glance, you would assume it was due to his duties as Jupiter's son and Juno's ward. If you actually looked, like _really_ looked, you realized he was uptight and quiet because it was hard for him to express himself. Sure, Percy had that look about him too—struggling with angsty-Chosen One turmoil, but he was goofy. You could go a lot of ways being goofy.

Here Jay and I were though, the air between us. He'd never had anything blocking off our friendship, but the closer he got, the further I wanted to get away. To resist this.

Arrow-and-lusting-after-my-best-friend aside, I had to say this had to be the cutest thing he'd ever done.

"Oh?" I asked, my voice still tense. It didn't feel like my own.

He nodded slowly, still trying to find the right thing to say, but the more he waited and the more I stared, there was a higher chance that I was about to jump him and shove my tongue in his mouth. Blue eyes scrutinized my form for the umpteenth time, and then I realized his gaze had fallen to my hand. The one I'd been nibbling on.

Luckily in that moment the door opened, a frustrated Percy coming out. "Alright, so he's not hiding under the—_dude._" He turned to me, eyes wide, then did a double-take between Jay and I. It was pretty obvious my best friend here wanted to electrocute the guy, but I said nothing.

Instead, Percy looked over his shoulder, called the others out of the room, and then casually waltzed my way. He squinted at my hair, then dumped a bottle of water on the tiny flame that ignited on my head.

"Thanks," I muttered. It was hard to pull away, but I managed to part gazes with Jason and look Percy in the eye. I hadn't realized how much willpower it'd taken to _not_ tackle my best friend until my knees buckled together and I was leaning on Percy for support.

"You okay?" he asked.

Unlike with Jason, I managed to nod uneasily and turned my body so I wasn't staring Jay in the face.

Our other four friends appeared from the room, looking back and forth in the situation. Suddenly Jason was getting glared at from eight eyes and looked at a loss. That was when I realized he was standing out here so he wouldn't provoke me.

_Too late._

"Um," I murmured, still refusing to look Jason in the face. Percy's scent of sea salts was totally messing with my head—less intoxicating than Jason's, but it managed to keep my mind on track. "I hear there's a plan involved?"

There was a symphony of nods.

"To the Ping-Pong table it is."

We sat around the ping-pong table, awkwardly changing seating arrangements. I was squished between Annabeth and Percy, who sat next to Jason, who sat next to Frank. The purpose of that was so I wasn't staring at Jason directly across from the table, and so Frank and Percy could hold one of us back if needed. The "one of _us"_ part seemed suspicious, but Jason hadn't flinched or fidgeted at the thought of it.

They told me the plan. I nearly flipped the table over.

"No," I snapped, then did the best menacing glare I could conjure. It was a good one, too. Worthy of Batman.

Jason frowned, immediately raising his head. "But Leo, this is the only way to—" I clamped hands over my ears, trying hard to block out the sound of his talking. The way he sounded, the _concern_ in it was just too memorizing. Let's not forget I'd dropped my pants somewhere in the other hallway.

"I don't care!" I shouted blindly—you know, after closing my eyes. Shouldn't listen to the guy, shouldn't look at the guy. "You're asking me to abandon my ship—the very thing that got us here, the thing I've been dreaming of since I was _five_, to go to Paris!" Paris, France. The City of Lights, the Place of Love—sure, seemed so fucking _obvious_ that Cupid would be there. And plenty of beautiful people, my favorite thing ever.

I could have sworn I heard someone mumble, _Told you he'd be against it. _I was! What part of, 'hot-spanking-war-machine that'd been knocked out of the sky and on a high of my feelings for my best friend' did _not_ sound like an ego bruiser?

Annabeth managed to yank one of my hands free from my ears. "Leo, Cupid shot you in the head with one of his lust arrows. Your senses are out of control—magic is manipulating your hormone levels. It's impossible for you to continue on the ship until we find Cupid and beg for his—"

"Lust Arrow?" I interrupted her. I looked in her direction, then to all of them. Obviously they'd been informed of the plan long before I was, and now they looked nervous. Or like Frank, who was trying very hard to be small. "What do you mean I was hit with a lust arrow?"

My instincts automatically told me to look to Jay, but I knew that was a bad idea. Percy began talking before I had the chance to start ogling again. He explained the details of what they found, and how they examined this case full of arrows meant for Eros, each a different color and each a different meaning.

"You got hit with a red one," Percy explained. "It induces…you know, sexual feelings." The way he looked to me, cheeks aflame and clearly embarrassed made me wonder how Annabeth looked. If I wasn't the butt-end of this cruel and unusual joke, I probably would have laughed. Percy was a dork, yes, but all things feelings fried his brain.

"So you're telling me," I said steadily, "The reason why I want to straddle Jason right now and rip his pants off is because I was hit an aphrodisiac nerf dart." A little note: when I was cranky, horny, or a mixture of the two, I tended not to have a filter on my mouth. Six sets of eyes stared at me, appalled or speechless.

Piper cleared her throat. "Leo…the point is, you'd kill any one of us for attempting to fix the ship—"

"Noted," I supplied.

"—and right now, you're barely in condition to fix it yourself—"

"Also noted."

"If Cupid is in Paris right now…fleeing from whoever A is," she made gestures and looked between Jay and Percy. "We should go. I'll apologize to Cupid myself. Besides…" Piper bit her lip and fidgeted in her seat. "My…my dad is shooting a movie there. We'll have a place to stay."

Silence passed over the room. I guess this was a fact she'd withheld from everyone. Then again, we all expected to squeeze right over France and make it to Greece without a problem. Stupid plan.

"Piper…" Annabeth's voice was steady. Her eyebrows contorted with concern, a frown across her lips. "With everything that's going on…there's no guarantee that your father will be safe."

"But we're outside the realm of the gods," Piper said instantly, a little hope in her voice. I realized she hadn't seen her father since Christmas. "We could travel the whole way there and not even run into any monsters."

"Or we could run into some more animations," Percy said, deadpanned. It took a minute to realize he was trying to say _anemoi._

"Only for a few days." Jay interrupted the debate before it could skyrocket. He looked to Piper, expression as full of concern as I've ever seen it, then to the rest of us. To me. "Our priority right now is Leo. And…whether you like it or not, man, we _have_ to go to Paris. There's just no other way around it."

Ugh. There was something intoxicating in that voice that made my ears have hearing sex. I snapped out of my scrutiny when I realized there was drool dripping from my lip. Looking down to my hands, I felt like a little kid that'd been ripped of all his choices.

I guess…I kinda _owed_ him. You know, for what happened in the shower. And forcibly kissing him. And for what happened in the shower. Mostly the last one.

"Fine," I muttered under my breath. It dispensed a sigh of relief from everyone else.

"So…Piper, Hazel, and I will go into town and ask the fastest route to Paris." Annabeth checked her watch. "We'll just avoid the street where the café was located. It's…about eight now, so we can rest up tonight the best we can and leave in the morning. Sound good?"

We all nodded.

"Well…meeting adjourned then."

**xxx**

The girls went out and I went back to my room. Jason tried to grab me on my way out (seeing as I was the first one to storm off), but he recoiled the moment someone said his name. They were serious about this—keeping my best friend and me away from each other so hell didn't break loose or so Jay and I didn't start an orgy on the mast or something. The way he reacted, all kicked-puppyish and stuff, made my chest flutter but also wonder if _he'd_ been the one shot by the arrow.

Seriously.

You'd think most guys would be running for their lives when their best friend macked on them and shoved a hand down their jeans. Or you were like Conner Stoll, who didn't mind making out on top of candy wrappers, smuggled cans of sodas, and something that looked suspiciously like a Rolex.

Something about Percy's suspicions hadn't sat well with my stomach. I couldn't remember the color of the dart when Eros shot me—but c'mon, would _you_ remember what color an arrow was after playing footsies with a hipster-god under the table? I didn't think so.

My chest ached, because all I wanted to do was see Jason. My heart stung, thinking about my two best friends moving further in their relationship. Then my stomach—I felt like puking all the feelings I'd ever had on a plate and see what disfigured thing came out of my mouth.

The thought was still running through my head later that night as I stared at the ceiling above my bed. Again. It'd been my turn to make dinner but for now I was excused from any duty—including watch duty, washing dishes, or anything. Frank brought me some food the girls had bought while in town. Percy kept me company for a while. We played Super Smash Bros. until I felt dizzy, and here I was now. One-by-one, the guys came in to sleep.

It was maybe two in the morning according to the clock hanging on the wall. I'd been awake since the meeting, still feeling every bone in my body tingle. I'd already taken a nap and was left with no job—just trying to occupy myself from thinking about my best friend. At the foot of our bunks was a metal chest gifted to me from my cabin. Nyssa and Jake explained that it contained a lot of precious metals salvaged from every war Camp Halfblood had ever faced, along with some blueprints for theoretical weapons they hadn't had time to create.

There were some metals in there that looked shockingly familiar—some of the cabin members had been holding out on me. I sat in my bed tinkering with them for a while. When Frank came in, he looked uneasy. Weird for an Ares kid—you would be _surprised_ how many of them came to _me_ earlier this summer commissioning weapons. Percy looked mesmerized and suspicious, wondering what I was doing, asked some weird questions, then knocked out with a few snores.

Combining the alloys would be tricky, but I let my hands do most of the work. I could probably solve a Sudoku and make some coffee while tinkering with this, too.

Later into the hour, my head started pounding. I shoved part of my craftsman ship under the bed and decided to call it a night.

What? Putting dangerous weapons under the mattress was a dangerous idea? Oh, _please._ A piece of advice: if you're proud enough to sleep with your inventions, do it!

Kicking off my sneakers and putting aside my jacket, I crawled back into bed and spun the blankey around me.

The door opened. Slow and rickety. The room was dark, with light illuminating the corners of the hallway and—

And Jason walked in, eyes as blue as the night sky and a somber expression to his face. I choked on a breath, examining him fully in all that sexiness for the first time instead of imagining it. He was drenched in sweat, his gladius dangling in one hand lifelessly—but I had a feeling any enemy that crossed the room he could slice and dice anyway. His mouth was parted, taking in steady breaths.

Most importantly after he shut the door behind him and sauntered through the room, Jay looked at _me._

His eyes took in my form; the fact that I was actually awake having gone unnoticed. He must have been staring for at least five or ten minutes, lost in thought.

I could feel my heart hammering in my chest. It was hard trying hard to keep my breathing slow and body temperature steady. Seriously—flame retardant bed sheets would have been a good investment.

Finally, he set his gladius at the edge of the bed, changed, and crumbled under the mattress.

Now, that was the version without my porn star glasses. You didn't see the way the sweat glistened over his skin, or that little blond happy trail that—

I shuddered. Flopping onto my stomach, I buried my face in my pillow and shut my eyes. I started listing off pi, tried thinking of making out again with one of the guys at Camp Halfblood—gods, I thought about _Drew_ prancing around and yowling like a hyena. She had this horrible impression that she could _sing_ during Valentine's Day and caused half the Apollo Cabin to go deaf.

About ten minutes into these thoughts, I gave up. Sleeping arrangements were just about the only thing that hadn't been discussed, and it hadn't crossed my mind until now. Sure enough, my entire body prickled, and this tiny annoying voice in my head mewled to go jump Jason and stick my fingers in places not normally seen in broad daylight.

I could drop onto him. I could undo the screws in the bed and collapse on top of him. I could shimmy—even though really, I didn't know how to shimmy.

Instead, a better thought crossed my mind. When I was sure that Jay had fallen asleep, I climbed down the ladder beside our bunks, stood at the tip of my toes to retrieve my latest project along with my magic tool belt, then crept out of the room.

Strapping the belt over my hips, I tucked the new project in one hand and climbed out of the _Argo II_. Annabeth was the one on watch duty tonight.

"Leo," she said with astonishment the moment I appeared. She was looking at some architecture books and that mirror shield she used to find things.

"Anything suspicious?" I asked, trying to keep it casual. I was sure that if I did otherwise, she would have told me to go back to bed. My hands were already curled together, nails digging into my palms as I tried to keep myself from trembling. Pretty sure my voice cracked too. Hopefully she'd contribute that to full-blown puberty or something.

Annabeth's eyebrows furrowed hesitantly. She shook her head, carefully examining me. "A couple of skinny dippers. Pretty sure they're all human though."

"Oh. That's good. The human part, I mean." I wondered what Poseidon did with skinny-dippers. Was that like, offensive? Maybe sharks were allowed to swim around and eat manweiners. Note to self: ask son of Poseidon before skinny-dipping if father eats manweiners. "So…how charming do I have to be for you to let me have watch duty?"

She gave me this weird grimace, like she couldn't believe I just asked that. Don't worry—that usually meant my charm was working. The secret was charming a pretty girl before they realized you were charming them.

I held my breath, rocked on my heels and tried for a goofy smile. Judging from my reflection in the water, I'm sure it looked more like a maniac with crazy eyes and twitchy hands, but that wasn't unusual.

After another inspection, she nodded. "Alright."

"Just like that?" I blinked.

"Just like that," she confirmed. Those gray eyes, suddenly more prodding and knowledgeable than they were five seconds ago, blinked my way. "You need it, don't you?"

I wasn't sure what 'it' was until I realized she was pointing to all the things Eros had gifted us. Yeah, I intended to see if I could fix the ship while I was out here. Mostly, I just wanted to get away from Jason. Regardless, I nodded uneasily and sauntered over to the materials.

"Well, it'd be offensive if I took away a hammer from a Hephaestus kid. So long as you don't hurt yourself." Annabeth's eyes narrowed to the project tucked under my arm. "What are you making, anyway?"

Turning red, I shoved them in my tool-belt and hoped we had some construction-telepathy that told it to keep the stuff there. "A gift."

Fortunately after that, she left me to my work. Her footsteps echoed as they climbed up the ramp to the ship, and I looked to what I had left. Eros had left Mist metal sheets, along with long plates of imperial gold and celestial bronze. Looking at it now, I realized he'd left us better prepared than when I made the ship back at camp. Which—really, took me by surprise. C'mon, other than being hit by a horny-arrow and wanting to give my best friend a handjob, I was totally perfect.

That being said, I started working. It was impossible to manipulate or move the parts without Hazel or the guys' help, so I focused on combining the three into a new alloy. The hole at the front of the ship grew bigger under eerie streetlights and aged with the moonlight. I shivered, feeling a summer night gust against my shirt.

Working by myself like this reminded me of Bunker 9. I thought even further, back to the time with my mother where it would be late at night and I kept her company by telling jokes. They were stupid—the jokes, I mean. But it always made me smile to see her smile.

A knot formed in my throat. I had to stop what I was doing, otherwise I would have burnt the material like earlier.

"So—" At the sound of the new voice, I jumped. "—are those the sheets Eros promised us?"

It was Jason. _Gods_! You would think they'd realize there was a time where someone did _not_ want to see their best friend who'd survived everything with them and you were hopelessly in love with! Just because an arrow induced some weird lusty feelings did _not_ mean I was attached to him.

Damn him and his loyalty.

I…was still shaken, thinking back to my mother. Jason had been in the furthest part of my mind for the first time since the incident. Guess that wasn't going to last long. Resisting the urge to turn around, I focused on the metal alloy.

"Yeah," I grunted. It didn't sound very manly—I didn't have the heart to try.

It was like earlier when we came face-to-face in the hallway. Silence. Knowing his eyes were directed at _me_ made my entire body fill with energy. My arms trembled and—fuck. This was just not a happy day for Leo.

A gust of wind whistled through the open warehouse door, and I heard two light feet _plop_ to the cement. Then nothing. It was hard to tell if Jason was inching toward me or just standing—you'd be amazed how light on his feet this guy was.

"You should be asleep," Jay offered.

I shrugged, resisting temptation to clamp both hands over my ears. It was slowly becoming a coping mechanism during this whole mess. Couldn't look him in the eye, couldn't hear him. If I could find a way to keep from smelling him, that'd help too.

Somewhere through this, my entire body had become tense to the point it _hurt_. Stuffing my hands in my tool belt, I kept eyes on my progress: a few metal scraps and something on the Mist metal that sort of looked like Abraham Lincoln.

Unfortunately, you weren't friends with Jason Grace. He did the unexpected thing by waltzing over and crouching right beside me. He placed a hand on my shoulder and my heart spun. "Leo?"

This time I couldn't resist him. I turned my head to the side only slightly, and looked to those blue eyes. My chest hurt. "Yeah?"

"I…" Uncertainty stormed in his eyes, brow contorting, but he pushed forth. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

Pin me down right now. Rip off my shirt. Plant kisses from my collarbone down to that little happy trail I have going on. Fuck me.

"No," I said, hands jingling in metal parts of my belt. I think I finally understand the lifestyle of a true engineer. They get to have a hand full of screws and nuts whenever they want and no one ever protests. Cheeks flaming pink, my eyes darted to the water.

In our reflections, Jason look devastated. I think a few sea-nymphs or whatever were trying to jump him. In a quiet voice, he muttered, "I'm sorry."

Agh, if there wasn't anything already that made my head ache. I threw my hands in the air like I did _whenever_ Jason did something stupid, then rolled my eyes. For the first time, I looked at him, and felt the tingle of a blush across my cheeks. "You. You are not at fault. Got it?"

"But—"

"Prince Charming. Superman." I glared at him again. This was a little more Flash than menacing Bat, but I hope it got the point across. "_Annoying. _Grace, I'm trying very hard not to jump you so we both see white hot passionate suns under the moonlight. And you—you're throwing off my groove. I try very hard to keep that groove, like my talent to annoy. Got it?"

"Uh." Jason blinked, taken aback. Granted, I hadn't given one of the classical Leo Valdez outbursts in a while.

I shriveled in front of him, unsure of what else to say. Pulling both of us to our feet, I had a hand on Jay's and for the first time all night, felt less antsy. A sigh escaped my lips. "Go to bed, Jason."

He didn't look happy about that. "But—"

"I'll join you in a little bit," I promised. Somehow my brain worked that as a confirmation of bedly activities. "You're still my best friend, okay?"

Obviously being rejected twice, I knew Jay would be upset about me denying his help. Again—when I wasn't being thirdwheeled, Piper, Jason, and I were family. You didn't shut down family—not under these circumstances. I took a step back, shook my head, and took in a breath. My entire body was already shaking, and my head hurt from just _seeing_ him and not _having_ in.

"Tomorrow," I said, "we'll go to Paris. We'll take the train that's in town, avoid the people that chased us out of the café and think we're crazy, and find Eros. After some awesome convincing, this weird arrow that makes me want to kiss you will be extracted from my system. Just to prove we're super best friends, I'll ask him to do it painfully. Okay?"

I tapped my foot, trying to look annoyed and frustrated. Trust me, that wasn't a hard attempt.

Jason looked to me, like he was still trying to figure out the meaning behind my words, but I knew he'd halt. That was what we did when neither one of us were ready to explore a conflict. And this conflict—the one where it wasn't the arrow that made me have feelings for Jay, was one I never wanted him to find out.

Finally, he held out his hand. Simplest gesture ever. "Promise?"

I stared at it. "I was kidding about the painful extraction part."

He smiled and my heart fluttered. I wanted to kiss him. "I know."

We shook hands. Just like when he'd placed the hand on my shoulder, I could feel my body tingle, finally at ease with itself. Forcing the sensation down, I shoved him toward the ramp Annabeth had gone up earlier.

I wasn't built like Jason and granted I was the shortest person in my cabin, but apparently I had enough strength to shove him back on the ship. He made a noise, surprised by my awesomeness and strength, and looked back. "Now go get some sleep!"

I think that last smile of the night killed me. Jay looked relieved to the _bone_ with a serene smile curled across his lip. "Good night, Leo."

"_Gods. _Good night, Grace." I smiled back despite myself.

I waited until he left up the ramp and I was sure he'd gone down the hall to the sleeping quarters. After that, I returned to working. Attempted to.

It'd been the most contact I'd had with Jason all day. I let out the breath I hadn't realized I was holding—shivered, and went back to work. There was too much willpower involved trying to push him away. My heart trembled in my chest, beating with a spark of pain.

My hands—_shit_—were too sweaty to work.

Forcing myself to ignore the sensation, it was hard igniting a spark. The tips of my fingers smoldered with heat, and I focused on that—the little bit of flame that flickered in the darkness of everything else. But every time I closed my eyes, I saw that smile—felt kisses that didn't belong to me. Felt little touches that would make me _writhe._

I didn't want to feel this way for Jason Grace.

I _never_ wanted to feel this way.

_Bright blue eyes, sparking with power. Hands, callused from days of training and heroship, skimming across skin and curling upon flesh. Pleasure, blooming from the most powerful sensations._

I could hear myself _moaning_ in my ears. _Begging_ to be thrown onto the bed, mewling for more, and choking on Jason's name. The images spiraled, and my teeth clattered, desperate for touch. Jason's touch. I threw my head back, trying hard to shake the thoughts, but it didn't work

I didn't want to feel like this.

I didn't want to _feel_ like this.

"I don't fucking want him," I snapped. Whoever that was aimed for, I just hoped the gods realized I was angry. "I don't _want_ to and I _hate_ this—agh!" The metal had caught on fire—bigger than what happened this afternoon. I flapped at it, feeling the fire like I was touching pudding.

Eventually, it went out. I found myself staring at a large injury marred on the metal the length of my arm. This…was my craftsmanship, the only thing I was _good_ at. And even this I ruined.

Yet all that ran through my head was shoving Jay against this frame and kissing him until we saw stars. I bit my finger, attempting to shove the thoughts away, but it'd gone numb from excessive abuse.

_Dammit_, Cupid, what was your _game_?

Seething, I fell to the ground and clamped both hands on my ears—anything to block out the sensual laughter.

_Moaning. Pressed against the bed as skin melted with skin, and wet kisses exchanged. Screams of absolute pleasure and at climax, a trail of creamy white that dripped down the side of a leg. My leg._

Shutting my eyes and digging nails into skin, I let darkness consume me.

**xxx**

**Author's Note: **

I do wanna warn you now of what's to come. Just like this chapter, there will be a few smutty scenes; seeing what the title is of the story. As odd as it can get sometimes, I hope you guys can bare with it. Hey, we made it to chapter four and have survived the first week of MoA! I hope you enjoyed, and keep reading! :D


	5. V: Jason

**Chapter V: **Jason

The morning started out with a scream.

I'd had trouble going to bed after my talk with Leo, but given the way he acted last night, I knew there was no way he'd let me help. If there was anything an inventor like Leo could be sometimes, it was a stubborn child. Around 8:00AM, when I was finally able to convince myself today would be the day we found Eros, I managed to drift off to sleep.

At 8:01AM, Hazel screamed.

I jolted awake, smashing my nose into the headboard with a yelp before rolling out of bed. The same thing happened to Percy, who fell off the top bunk and face-planted into the ground. He let out a loud groan, rubbing a bump on his head before lifting his eyes toward me.

To my surprise, that look instantly sobered. Percy grabbed Riptide from his pants pocket, uncapped it and looked around. "What happened?"

His question was answered with another loud scream: a distinct cry for help. This time I joined him, gripping my _gladius_ in one hand and leading the way outside. Piper and Annabeth were already at the other end of the hallway, scoping out the problem. As far as we could tell, there was nothing out of the ordinary.

"Any idea what's going on?" Percy asked. His eyes narrowed to the girls. They shook their heads.

Looking at them now, I realized we were all in a state of grogginess. Annabeth had her hair tied in a messy bun, curly ends still sticking out from being against a pillow. Piper's hair stuck out in clumps, all choppy and adorable. She noticed I was staring, but I was too busy deciding how cute and deadly she looked, hair puffed out like a dandelion and dangerous knife in her hand.

She looked at me, eyebrow arched in the air. "What?"

"Nothing," I said quickly, and hoped I was too muzzy to look stupid.

When the coast seemed clear, we exited off the ramp and finally found the problem. _Leo_.

At the edge of the ramp, Frank and Hazel were doing a thorough examination of what was wrong. My best friend lay on his back, twitching and trembling, and soaked in sweat. Piper and I dropped our weapons and came to either side of him. The panic thrummed loudly in my chest, eyes wide and all evidence of sleepiness washed away.

"He's still breathing," Frank said steadily, but his voice was thin. "Hazel and I—we…we planned on going out and seeing if we could get some croissants or something, but then…we found him here like this."

He wasn't unconscious. Leo's eyes were wide and bloodshot, pupils as thin as the point of a pen. His teeth clattered with this unpleasant sound, the moisture of tears at the creases of his eyes mixing with glaring sweat. Leo shivered like a little kid who had a cold, and tiny sounds etched from the back of his throat.

Piper fell to the ground and pulled Leo's head into her lap. His complexion had paled into an inhuman white, clammy and cold. She brushed a hand over his curls and muttered something sweet in his ear. It didn't work.

She looked to me desperately, eyebrows furrowed together with panic.

Dropping to my knees, I felt my heart sank. Even in my memories I couldn't recall an instruction manual on _what-to-do-when-your-best-friend-is…is…_well, it would help if I knew what was wrong.

I placed a hand on Leo's forehead, only to feel his temperature, and to my surprise, he gasped for air. His body animated, and a second later, I found my hands full of Valdez. Leo lunged for me, tackling my form to the ground with his face buried into my stomach.

"Whoa—!" I stammered, but had no chance to protest or react. The little sobs Leo had broken into were reduced to short gasps and quiet whimpers. "Leo—"

That train of thought was interrupted quickly. Piper placed a hand on her mouth, Frank and Hazel stood by idly. None of us knew what to say. Leo's choked sounds echoed through the warehouse, rebounding off the walls and into the rain outside. When the shock finally dissolved from my system, I started rubbing circles in his back and mumbled a prayer to Apollo. _Please don't let this be permanent. _

Eventually he tired himself out, a content sound leaving his lips as he fell asleep. Leo's sweat soaked my shirt, and slowly, I could feel his natural body heat returning.

I looked to Piper and confirmed he was asleep. Then, I looked to the others, my throat constricting. The anger boiled in the pit of my stomach, hands pressing against Leo's back tersely. None of them had an answer for this. "I'm not leaving him. Not this time. You can't make me."

They all looked to each other, but my eyes fell to Annabeth. She'd been the one who planted the idea to keep distance between us. I knew it was a pitiful thing to be angry for—but I couldn't help it. If I could manipulate lightning and air at will as easily as Leo did with fire, I'd probably have some tornados spinning around outside and electricity spitting out my ears.

"Resisting the affects of the arrow must have be driving him toward insanity," Annabeth finally said. She took a hesitant step forward and bit her lip. "I…I doubt it's turned into absolute insanity though. Not like being in the labyrinth for a few days." Whatever that meant, I didn't care.

"So what do we do?" Piper asked. She placed a hand on my own.

Instead of looking at Percy or Annabeth for answers, everyone looked to me. My throat went dry and I moved Leo's head just slightly to catch a glimpse of his face. We were all doing this for him, after all. Opening my mouth, I found it empty of words.

Finally, a thought came to mind. I collected both Leo and I to our feet and scooped my best friend into my arms. His grip adjusted before I could blink—arms quickly locked around my neck. He nuzzled his head into my shoulder and crooned. At first, I stumbled, having trouble adjusting to his weight. Then, "We'll leave after Leo wakes up. Until then, we'll just have to stock up on goods for the next few days."

Turning my head, I tried to look at him—to see if he was breathing and less sickly.

"Touching Leo like this," came the words from my mouth, "seems to be working. So I'll just sleep with him."

Starting for the ramp, I realized I'd become the object of gawking stares. My mind traced back to the sentence and—

"I-I meant I'd goto bed with him!" I stammered. My face grew hot. "N…not…" Okay. None of that sounded any better.

Before I could embarrass myself further, I carried Leo onto the ship and into our room. My bunk was only a little bigger than the cot I stayed in at Camp Halfblood, so as I put Leo down he took nearly half of it. I scooted him over, clumsily squishing both of us into the space.

You would think this would be a little more awkward, but it wasn't. We'd gone on quests, worked together and—hell, this…wasn't the first time I've dragged him to bed after he tired himself on the ship. On the nights at Camp Halfblood when I had trouble sleeping, I used to dodge the security harpies to see if I could talk to Leo in Bunker 9. Usually he'd be sprawled out in the middle of Argo II, a hammer in one hand and snoring. I would take it upon myself to place him on the cot nearby.

Gradually, Leo stirred, chocolate brown eyes fuzzy as they looked at me. "Jay…?"

My heart skipped a beat, lips tight. I'd…never been in a situation like this, not even in my past. Comforting people had never been one of my strong suits—Jason Grace, the praetor to the Twelfth Legion Fulminata was not whom many people came to for a word of care. With Leo, it was usually a simple matter of instinct taking over. Unless I was nervous, I didn't have to think when it came to him.

"Go to sleep," I muttered, voice cracking. Pushing the bangs out of his eyes like Piper had done, I wrapped an arm around his waist and threw the flimsy blanket over our legs. Red stained my cheeks and I trembled.

He didn't protest. Whatever sucked the soul out of him last night, Leo was too tired to go against and he buried his nose into the crook of my neck. "Okay."

It took a few odd moments, with Leo breathing in my ear. I stared at the bunk above us where he would have slept, counted sheep, and steadied my breathing with the storm outside. Leo remained buried against me, curled into a tiny thing at my side. Finally, I fell asleep with absolute warmth against me.

**xxx**

The thing about demigods and dreams was that a majority of the time, they told us something. In my case, I spent the last eight months reliving a new memory that wasn't there before. Sometimes it was important and sentimental, like the time I turned thirteen and "found" a coin in the Temple of Jupiter that later became my signature weapon.

Other times, it was awkward memories of Reyna when my heart would leap out of my chest and I'd smile even though I wasn't supposed to, or being raised in the Fifth Cohort with Gwendolyn and Dakota. On a particularly random occasion, I once remembered waking up and brushing my teeth. Yeah. Random.

What happened in my dream now was completely different from the ones before. I stood in the front lawn of an elementary school, my bare feet ankle-deep in hot, vibrant grass and little kids waiting in lines for the school bus or their parents. They didn't notice me. I realized I wasn't actually reliving the memory.

It made no sense to me as I walked along. There wasn't anything particularly special, other than little kids dragging along their siblings to see their parents. My heart clenched as I thought back to Thalia and…and what she said of our mother, but I pushed it aside. Somehow, I _knew_ that wasn't the case here.

Then I saw him. Beneath the awning next to the entrance of the school sat a little boy at the foot of an adult. He had a large set of chocolate brown eyes and a fluffy head of dark curls, complimented with an eager smile. Before I could take a guess why I was drawn to him, I knew instantly that was Leo.

Walking forward, I ducked under the awning and watched him. The attendant watched him with a smile as mini-Leo contently played with some pipe-cleaners and construction paper. He grinned happily as the paper-and-pipe-cleaner wad turned into an operating robot.

_Cute_, I thought to myself. So did the attendant, who smiled encouragingly and petted him on the head.

We waited until every last child was accounted for: either on a bus or picked up by their parents. Except for Leo.

The look on the attendant's face grew impatient. His smile became tighter as time went by; as the blinking _School Zone_ sign went off and the street became deserted. Never the less, Leo had an endless supply of construction paper and pipe cleaners to work with. After a while—I couldn't remember how much time passed—he had made an army of ten and started constructing something that looked like a city.

Even at this age—Leo couldn't have been more than four or five—he was still amazing. He made my ability to shoot lightning look stupid.

Finally there was a shout. I couldn't make out the language, just knew something was happening. A car had pulled up, worn but clearly still in working condition. Leo's eyes lit up, happier than he had been before. A woman came out, and I caught my breath.

"Mama!" Leo shouted, and he ran toward the car with the attendant following after him.

The woman had curly brown hair pulled back into a ponytail and tucked beneath a hat. She wore a jumpsuit like you would see at an automechanic's, and I could barely make out the last part of her name: "…_anza_."

"Miss Valdez," the attendant lowered his head.

Ms. Valdez looked exactly like Leo. She had his brown eyes and his winning, mischievous smile. Having Leo tucked in her arms, she looked like the happiest woman alive. When the man said her name, however, her expression darkened. So did Leo's.

They talked.

"This is the fourth time you've left him," he said in a gruff voice. Suddenly the man seemed meaner than he did before, but I realized he was caring for Leo's wellbeing.

"I know," Ms. Valdez said simply. She was calm, with…with a fire in her eyes.

The conversation went back and forth with a steady tone. She apologized to the man, apologized to Leo, and explained she was held up at her job. He shook his head and waggled his finger sometimes, telling her she needed to be a more responsible parent. He said _parent_ like it was a joke. Every time a word was said, Leo looked sadder.

After that, he said something that made Ms. Valdez snap. Her face turned red with rage and she yelled at him in Spanish—saying a few things I'm pretty sure was not meant for a five-year-old's ears. Without further argument, she strapped Leo into the back seat and drove off, leaving the man in numbing shock.

The scene changed to the back of an automobile workshop. Windows on the other side of the shop gleamed orange, signaling that the sun was setting.

Ms. Valdez sat on a stool, chocolate brown eyes focused on a mechanism too complicated for me to understand, and was in the middle of fixing it. The anger still boiled on her face, flames of rage still in her eyes. In the stool next to her, mini-Leo sat with a sad look on his face.

My heart squeezed. I wanted to reach out and hold my best friend.

Suddenly, he looked up, hope in his eyes as he wagged his feet. "Mama?"

Instantly, Ms. Valdez stopped her work and looked to her son. I was surprised how quickly she turned. "Yes, mijo?"

Leo grinned toothily, revealing all the teeth that were gone from his mouth. "What do you call a dinosaur that's asleep?"

"Hmm…" she smiled beautifully, tapping the screwdriver to her cheek. "I don't know, mijo. What?"

"A _dinosnore!" _He proceeded with jumping on top of the work table, letting out a shriek like a pterodactyl and flapping his wings before…pretending to snore. He made sounds, then collapsed on the desk dramatically.

Ms. Valdez burst into a fit of giggles, that earlier anger immediately forgotten. I'd almost forgotten it too. "You know what wakes up a dinosnore, Leo?"

He kicked his feet. "What!"

"The…_Tickle Monster!"_

Fits of laughter echoed through the workshop, and only happiness passed through. Anyone up front who heard simply ignored it, as though they were used to hearing two Valdezes acting silly. I couldn't help but watch in surprise—I'd seen Leo misty-eyed when it came to his ship. I'd seen him smiling when he was around his cabinmates. Never like this, though.

When they finally calmed down, Ms. Valdez had her arms wrapped around Leo's torso and kissed him. "I love you, mijo."

Leo smiled back from cheek-to-cheek. "I love you too."

**xxx**

I woke up with normal-sized Leo's forehead smacking me in the nose. Literally—like I said before, the beds weren't really that big. Leo took a big sigh and contently tucked his face in my chest. My arm was tucked under his head and other hand on the small of his back. His legs had taken position around one of mine, and I took an elbow to the stomach, too.

On the bright side, other than the pain Leo had turned into a better color.

Looking at him, it was like the first time I'd ever seen my best friend. Fascination bubbled in my mind, the memory returning to my consciousness. Was that what Leo was dreaming? Was it true? Why…did I see that?

When he started drooling on my shoulder, I moved my head a little. Was this how couples normally slept? Pressed together in too-little space with an elbow digging into their stomach? I blinked.

Suddenly, he groaned, another content sigh leaving his lips. Brown eyes fluttered open, groggy as they took in their surroundings.

I stared at them. Piper's eyes were beautiful, multi-colored and kept you guessing, but Leo's eyes were just as enticing. I'd never realized the little gold specks he had in them or those dark little freckles that spilled over his nose.

Leo blinked away his sleepiness and stared at me. I expected him to shriek or something and fall back—in fact, my grip had tightened over his waist to prevent that.

"I'm blocking your only exit," I said immediately. My gaze narrowed at him, hoping he'd believe my threat. "You're here because you spent the whole day dodging me, and that almost left you insane. I don't care what it takes, but I'm not going to let you die. Especially if I can prevent it." My voice cracked by the end of it. I meant every word.

Silence passed between us. Finally, Leo scooted closer to the wall and dragged me with him. "Did you used to sleep with a teddy bear?"

Okay. That one caught me off guard. "Bwuh?"

"I woke up in the middle of this, dude, and you were choking the life out of me." Leo made a face beneath the bunk, sunlight gleaming in his eyes from my tiny window. "You steal one of Octavian's stuffed animals when you were little?"

My cheeks turned red, but I was too stunned to say anything intelligent. "I…have this stuffed Pikachu named Cheeks."

Leo burst into a quiet laughter that reminded me of the workshop dream. "_Cheeks_?"

"It was a gift," I said weakly. My whole point was to come off as the strong and determined best friend. Leo was easily making the _strong_ and _determined_ turn to utter shock. "Leo, you're not going to freak out about this?"

To my surprise (and somewhat comfort) he fell silent. Leo pitched himself on one arm, his sarcasm disappearing into seriousness and dark eyebrows furrowed together. The way it happened reminded me of how serious his mother looked.

"I woke up in the middle of it when you started hugging me like Cheeks," he mumbled. I realized he'd disentangled all of our limbs. His eyes darted a different direction and cheeks turned bright red. I turned red, too. "But I knew you did this out of the goodness of your heart. And you'd be pissed if I rejected it."

"Do you feel better?" My hand knotted on his waist. He twitched, a little surprised, then turned redder. Still, Leo wouldn't look me in the eye.

"Mostly," he squeaked, though now he was trying to maintain a distance between the both of us. The way he acted reminded me of when the predicament started—right after we got back from town and how he refused to come up to me.

"Leo, I'm willing to do anything for you," I said immediately. The irritation bubbled in my stomach. "You're my best friend—"

"I know," Leo snapped, but there was no anger behind it. Instead, he had curled around me, delicately trying to avoid any…intimate contact. Which was hard, considering we were two teenaged boys crammed in a tiny bunk bed. I was sure I was going to get up and feel a symphony of aches in my back—"Could I kiss you?"

I blinked. Um.

Leo's eyes fell to my lips, urgent and very much focused. Now that he brought it to my attention, I could smell his morning breath on my lips. It was stupid of me, I realized, to think this couldn't go far. The Leo that was shot by Eros had immediately come after me and skillfully undid my pants only a day ago. We were dealing with a _Lust_ Arrow.

"Forget it." Leo began crawling out of the bed, red up to his hairline and clearly mortified. "Thanks, Jay, but—"

"Wait!" I rolled out of the bed skillfully and grabbed him by the arm. By doing so, I could feel his body as it trembled under my grip and I froze. "Leo…"

"Forget it," Leo snapped.

"No," I argued, then glared at him. Fortunately it was enough to halt his intent of leaving, and I turned so Leo had no choice but to look at me. "You…we can kiss, Valdez. The question just took me off guard." In _any_ context, that would take a person off guard. I loosened my grip and stood parallel to my best friend. He had his hands tucked in his pockets, with some obvious jingling.

Truthfully, other than that kiss on Piper's cheek, I couldn't remember ever kissing anyone. As far as I'd like to admit, Leo had taken my first kiss and a few more yesterday after he'd been hit with the arrow. Actually kissing someone _myself_ was just a whole new concept I, embarrassingly enough, could not grasp.

But Leo was still too uncomfortable about this problem, and I don't think I was helping by keeping a level head about it. He wasn't going to budge. Lacing a hand around his jaw, Leo fidgeted, but I refused to let this turn into a problem here.

Let's see…you…looked the person in the eye (what happened if they weren't looking back?) and then you leaned forward…what did you do with your nose? And you closed your eyes…wait—I almost poked him in the eye by accident.

Leo laughed quietly, the mirth and warmth clearly in his voice while I turned red. "You're _terrible_ at this."

I wanted to be embarrassed, but I was too glad that my best friend was in a better mood. Fumbling into a smile, I shrugged. Finally, even reluctantly, Leo reached up, laced his hands on either side of my head and pulled me into a kiss.

It was fiery. _Literally. _Maybe it was his pyrokinesis, but the moment our lips made contact, I felt a warmth flow through my body. I think we aimed for a chaste peck, but the moment he got engrossed, Leo mewled for more. I wasn't sure how responsive I was being, standing there with arms on either side of me, but that didn't deter him.

One of Leo's hands scraped the exterior of my shirt, another mewl leaving his lips so pleasantly that I had trouble keeping a clear head about the situation. There was never mention of some girl he'd ever had experience with—but Leo seemed to have no problem here. He nibbled on my lip and it felt…good.

On cue, the door opened, and five of our closest comrades spilled through. Before I could even register what happened, Leo pushed me away so I landed on the bed. There was a gasp and, half-dazed, I could make out Piper, whose eyes were wide with shock. Annabeth placed a hand on her wrist to keep her from darting out the door.

They were dressed for the day, jeans and purple or orange t-shirt with a bag slung over their shoulders. Turning my head slightly to the clock, I realized it was a little bit passed noon and…here Leo and I were. At the beginnings of a make-out session.

"Uh," I said, numb in the head, "Morning."

They looked to us like Leo and I had just formed into one person with four heads. But all I could focus on was Piper, who from the looks of it, couldn't tell whether to be horrified or incredibly confused. I couldn't blame her—couldn't take my eyes _off_ of her.

Suddenly I felt like I was cheating and…I didn't want to hurt Piper. I'd never want to hurt her.

"We," I mumbled, "found a way to keep Leo okay."

Annabeth nodded steadily. "That's…good."

Awkward silence. I'd never been at a loss for words in my life. Looking at the mixture of emotions on Piper's face as she tried to swallow them made me sick to my stomach. Looking back to Leo, I surprised both of us by taking him by the hand. "We're still trying to figure out how the arrow's affecting him."

Piper's eyes locked onto mine. I knew we were thinking the same thing: we shared out first kiss only a day ago, and I thought that'd finally be the beginning of the relationship we wanted. But…not…at the expense of Leo's safety. Neither one of us would forgive ourselves if we let the third member of our family suffer.

Leo seemed to realize this. He looked between me and Piper, let out an exasperated sigh and yanked at his hair with his free hand. "Okay. So listen up." He whirled his hand in the general direction of our team and rolled is eyes. "There are seven of us in this room. Three of us—I'm not going to name _who_—are single. Two of these three—again, _no names here_—are madly in love with each other. Everyone, and I mean _everyone _knows that they're hopeless idiots in love. Don't nod anyone—Frankie, quit smiling." Leo eyed the guy playfully, but I think this was the first time he'd ever called Frank, '_Frankie.' _The big guy certainly seemed surprised.

He continued. "The other one, you know, the hot Hispanic wingman could care less. In fact, he thinks his best friend is an idiot for dragging him into this." He gave my hand an unintentional squeeze, which evoked surprise from the both of us. "He…really doesn't want to do this. And he knows that his best friends will realize through countless peril and shit that he just wants them to be happy."

Looking to Leo, I realized his voice had cracked, and he was staring at our hands knotted together rather than any other person, then was lost in his own thoughts. I nudged him to get his attention.

"So! Um," Leo mumbled quietly, and his cheeks brushed pink. "Are we in understanding? Beauty Qu—ahem, two anonymous parties?"

There were various mutters of agreement, though I'm sure not very many people would take Leo seriously by calling himself the 'hot Hispanic wingman.' I looked to Piper, who still seemed unconvinced of the situation. With a forceful smile, I hoped she could tell I was begging her to believe me. I wanted to be with her as much as she wanted to be with me. I think.

Finally she nodded, getting the message loud and clear (though I think it was because Leo glared at her) and smiled back.

"Okay!" Leo threw his hands in the air. "Time to get ready for a painful ride on a train. Joy." With that, he yanked a towel from his chest of things and an extra set of clothes before scampering off. He darted off so fast that it barely registered in my head that he was getting away from me.

"Leo, do you need me to—"

"No!" echoed the voice from the other end of the hall.

With that, we were left with six. But everyone else disappeared when I looked back to Piper and into her eyes. One of our teammates made a sound, signaling they were leaving to do something unimportant. The door shut and I was left with the one girl that kept me grounded for the last eight months.

Rocking on my heels, I bit my lip. "So…"

"It's probably for the best," she said in a quiet voice. Piper took a step back, and a tiny smile spread across her lips. Just from the look of it, I saw no pain. She wasn't trying to hide anything, not now. Leo's speech must have done more than convince her

"Yeah," I said, mesmerized. Smiling gratefully, I raised my head. "Piper?"

"Yeah?"

"When this is over, do you…wanna go on a date with me?" My heart hammered in my chest. The way she looked earlier, wistful and sweet, I couldn't help but ask. It wasn't easy to make amends for something this…odd. When we set sail from Camp Halfblood to find Percy and went en route to Greece, we hadn't prepared What to Do If We Run Into Cupid. Plus…I had eight months to make a move and I'd pushed her away.

It certainly paid off, seeing her kaleidoscope eyes shimmer in surprise and eagerness. "Y…yeah. Yeah, sure. I-I'd like that." They glittered again. "I'd _love _that."

A breath left my lips, one I didn't realize I was holding. Fiddling with the strings of my PJ pants, I flashed a grin. "Okay. Okay, cool."

"Very cool," Piper breathed in agreement.

We stared at each other for the following moments. All that needed to be said was said. Piper stared at me, biting the inside of her mouth. I got the feeling she was waiting for me to pull something else out of my sleeve, but asking her on a date basically counted as puking up my guts.

"I should shower," I said when I couldn't figure out what else she wanted.

"Right." Piper nodded understandingly and left.

After the door shut for the third time that day, I collapsed onto the bed, feeling as though I conquered Krios all over again. My hands tingled like they were full of electricity, but I knew better than that. Smiling, I had to force myself to tone it down before I became a conductor for the entire ship.

Gods, girls were weird.

**xxx**

I would be lying if I said cooperating with Leo suddenly became easier.

It started after we were both done showering. I made sure to keep mine quick just in case Leo needed me, and then followed him to the room where we changed. There wasn't much for me to pack: I had a few Camp Halfblood t-shirts to stuff in a Camp Jupiter drawstring bag (how ironic was _that_?), an extra pair of underwear or two, an extra pair of socks and a leather necklace from Camp Halfblood that had one bead carved and painted to look like the Argo II.

Technically according to Annabeth, you didn't get a bead added to your necklace until the end of the summer, when most of the summer kids would go home. The reason why we got it so early was because they weren't sure we'd come back alive. Yeah, that wasn't a good omen either.

Leo was busy tinkering with things on his bunk and trying to figure out what he could carry in his tool belt. When he started thinking about crazy ideas and mumbling to himself, I knew it would be a bad time to interrupt him.

All that noise stopped while I was changing into a clean set of clothes. I looked to him, afraid Leo may have keeled over or something. "You okay?"

He seemed dazed, staring straight at me with his mouth partially open. Then his gaze fell to his feet and he fiddled with his belt. "Y-yeah."

After that, Frank came in the room asking about a missing pair of his favorite socks and Leo dove for the exit with the son of Mars in tow. You wouldn't think someone so much smaller in stature could drag someone else of Frank's build that fast.

When I exited the room with everything in hand, including the tool belt and bag Leo had forgotten, I found him forming a human barricade behind Frank, Hazel, and Percy. He carried on a conversation like it was the easiest thing in the world, spared me one glance, and wouldn't look at me again.

Tentatively, I stepped out to give him his bag. "You forgot these." Leo Valdez would _never_ forget his tool belt. Not unless something serious bothered him.

He stared at the bag like I was offering poison. With the utmost hesitation, Leo reached out, snatched his bag and tool belt and strapped it onto himself. Being faster than him before he could get away, I grabbed Leo by the hand and clamped my fingers to his tightly.

I stared him the eye, the wariness and irritation already bubbling in my stomach. This day was not going to end well if Leo stuck to avoiding me and the circumstance. This morning, my best friend had falle on the ground in _pain_ because he was avoiding me. I _wasn't_ going to let that happen again. Steadily, I asked, "You ready to go?"

With just as much tension in his eyes, Leo's gaze narrowed in my direction and he let out a heavy breath. "Yeah."

Maybe it was the first time I felt like Jason Grace, Praetor of the Twelfth Legion and consul to the demigods. I was filling in his shoes, taking in that authoritative role instead of letting Leo run wild. If there were any protestors, no one cared to voice their opinion. Percy looked at the way we linked hands, but then had an arm wrapped around Annabeth's waist. Piper, Hazel, and Frank had taken lead up front. Apparently while Leo and I were asleep, part of the gang managed to go out and buy some umbrellas for us.

The storm looked worst from yesterday, occasionally thundering and hissing as we walked. I know for a fact I was glaring at the sky as much as Percy leered at the sea, since both howled.

For the ten minutes that it took us to get back into the city, Leo refused to talk to me. He didn't look me in the eye and had his other hand jingling in his tool belt. Last night, Leo spoke about keeping a frigid front for the both of us. I knew he was upset about not getting his way—especially the fact he would have to abandon the Argo II for a few days, but I wished he just realized how worried he'd left us.

"You know you're my best friend, right?" I asked quietly.

The question caught him off guard. Leo snapped out of his thoughts and looked to me, bewildered.

"You scared me this morning." Narrowing my gaze, I made an elbow to touch my arm with his. "Look, I…I _know_ it must kill you to have to do this. But you're a good guy, Leo. My best friend. And I'd…I'd lose it if I lost you."

The words sailed through the air, out in the open. Letting it out, I felt like I'd let a venti out of a tiny jar and allowed it to burst through the air.

We were at a street corner when all of us stopped. Leo seemed to take my words to heart, even if he hadn't formulated a response. The train station had become visible, only a block down the street. I'd hoped that from this walk forward, he'd understand how I felt.

Then he burnt my hand.

Unseen to anyone else, Leo's hand spiked four hundred degrees, fiery red pain crackling in the palm of my hand. I yowled, immediately yanking it away from his grip and clutching it with my other hand. Everyone turned around, jumping from my sudden outburst and Leo only looked to me. At first, with wide eyes, then he turned and trekked in front of me.

He _burnt_ me.

Leo _BURNT _me!

"_WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM_?" I shouted at the top of my lungs. I clutched my injured hand tightly, still feeling the skin sizzling and smoke rising from my palm. The thunder clattered and shrieked in the background, a gust of wind whirling through my hair. Anger blazed in my chest.

If Leo regretted what he'd done before, he certainly forgot about it now. I heard Piper gasp as she looked at the wound on my hand, but it barely registered as Leo jerked his head. "What's _yours_?"

Really? _Really_?! "If you haven't been paying attention for the last fucking twenty-four hours, I've been trying to help you!" I snapped. The gang had parted against my fury, even Percy, as I stomped toward Leo, who was backing up into the street. "You would be a _dead man_ without me, Valdez!"

"Yeah? W-Well I'm a fucking dead man _with_ you, too!" Thinking Leo would back down in this fight would have been a stupid idea. He wasn't some wimp who ran away from his battles. Instead, that fire ignited in his eyes along with his hands. "You are rubbing on my _last_ nerve, Grace!"

"Hey!" Piper's voice was as alarming as being doused in cold water. "_Cool_ it!"

For a second, both of us did. We calmed down with her charmspeak and I saw the fear that danced in Leo's eyes as it examined my injured hand with worry, and part of me realized it was an accident.

Then the other part of me just _knew_ he'd done it on purpose.

"I am _trying_ to be a good best friend here!" I went to charge for him, but this time Percy and Annabeth restrained me. They had a grip on both my arms, and combined, they managed to keep their grip. Leo kept backing away, like each one of my steps led toward his death. That only made me angrier.

"I don't _need_ you to be a good friend! You're—you're _hurting_ me!" Leo clamped hands over his ears like he'd done several times before, face shriveling with misery. "I've been trying to tell you from the fucking beginning, I didn't want your help with this!"

"Well, you're _not_ going to get your way!"

"Oh yeah! That's what I need; Mister Perfect saving the day again!" Leo's hands balled into fists and his expression burst with fury. "I don't _want_ your help. Fuck, Jason, the harder you _make_ this, the less I want to _see_ you!"

That one hurt. I felt the words curl in my stomach, and my whole body stung watching that fury boil in Leo's eyes. He finally looked at me, and he couldn't stand the sight of me. Percy and Annabeth let go of my arms when they were convinced I wasn't going to lunge, and Leo stood dead still, as though challenging me for the next word. I met it.

"You think your mother would be happy," tumbled out of my mouth, "if I just let you _die_?"

I shouldn't have said it. The instant that it left my mouth, I felt a wave of nausea pass through my stomach and someone's gladius driving straight in my chest. The look Leo gave me just after I said that was enough to make me want to _die_. Yet I couldn't find enough pride in any chasm to take back what I just said.

Leo's lips turned into a firm line. They quivered. I thought he was going to summon a hammer and throw it at me. His hands had lost the fire, only coiled into fists.

"Wait," I started, then charged after him. "Leo—"

Literally, _charged._ As soon as I grabbed him by the arm, the frustrations that knotted in my stomach had burst into a strip of electricity and electrocuted him, like a super-powered charge of extra static. Leo let out a yelp, but then he whirled around and headbutted me into the ground. A wave of fire accompanied his attack, and I found myself batting against the fire on my shirt.

"Just let me talk to you!" I pleaded.

Leo shook his head, stumbling backward into Piper, Hazel, and Frank. They were all too scared to intervene. "Back _off_, Jason."

Raindrops that fell onto him simmered into steam. He stalked off before I could regain my footing, heading straight to the station by himself. Everyone else seemed as stunned as I was about the situation. We were lucky the rain hid us; too many locals found it unnecessary to go outside and run their errands. All that was left was Leo in his faded green jacket walking closer and closer to our destination.

Finally, Piper drew a breath. "Jason…"

"I know," I finished for her.

I let the anger get the better of me.

**xxx**

Essentially as our status went for this quest, I was quickly becoming the pain in everyone's side. Annabeth warned me not to do anything reckless, but I did so anyway. Percy poked some fun examining my relationship with Leo, and I ended up taking it more to heart than I should have. Piper had assured me that tensions were just high at the moment, and Leo and I were bound to yell at each other for the situation. I wished she wasn't right.

We bought our tickets. It managed to take up a good portion of our money, even after Piper charmspoke the man up front to lower our price. The seats were three-by-three. Even though the train was practically empty, Leo opted to be the odd-man out and sat alone up front while the rest of us sat on a different side.

I made a move to go apologize to Leo, but that was met with Percy and Frank pinning me down, Annabeth pressing her knife to my neck and even Piper leering at me, Katopris in one hand as she charmspoke me these exact words with absolute clarity: _"You're going to sit in your seat for the next five hours and behave. If Leo wants to forgive you, he will." _

When you say the words yourself, it sounded simple. But hook, line, and sinker, Piper managed to say those steady words, I repeated them, and behaved in my seat. At least for a little while.

Halfway through the trip, I was still sulking in the aisle seat. Frank had knocked out like a light, snoring and drooling against the window. Percy woke up once or twice, mumbled something about blue pepsi, and then fell asleep again.

I was looking down the aisle to the tuft of curls known as my best friend. He hadn't looked back here once, and I knew that I'd taken it too far. Our little peace treaty earlier that afternoon seemed so long ago now; I wasn't sure what to do, or what to say so Leo would forgive me.

But _I_ was angry too. And I had a right to be, even if everyone was against me now. I'd been trying to reason with my best friend for what seemed like ages that I had his best interest in heart. In return, he snubbed me and yelled, then had no explanation behind it. What I said about his mother slipped. I thought back to Ms. Valdez only after seeing the anger boil in Leo's eyes the same way it did in hers when she told off that attendant. I knew it was an invasion of Leo's privacy, but I couldn't help feeling irritated for him.

Hazel was keeping a watch on me from her seat. Piper and Annabeth had drifted off in their own slumber, leaving me with one of my old friends from the Fifth Cohort. For the first time, I looked up and into her eyes. She studied me carefully.

"You know I didn't electrocute him on purpose, right?" I asked weakly.

She hesitated, then nodded. I never got to know her very well after she came to Camp Jupiter. Hazel arrived some time after the War with a brother. I thought it would be a relief to finally talk to someone; another child of the Big Three, but duties as praetor got in the way. Besides, the moment I met her and her brother, the 'ambassador to the Underworld,' I knew the kid wanted nothing to do with me.

"It's an accidental gift," she said finally. "Something incredibly powerful that you just can't control."

Blinking, I nodded carefully. It was probably terrible of me to say I expected a sharp answer and to be called stupid. Annabeth, Percy, and even Piper wouldn't have hesitated.

"But that's just like Leo's fire." Hazel quickly asserted the words before I could go off on another thought. She did a 180 in her seat so her full attention was turned to me. "I don't…I _know_ he didn't mean to burn you."

The look on my face told her I wasn't convinced. It felt like Leo would do just about anything to get away from me.

"You electrocuted him," she said quietly so mortal passengers couldn't hear. "But you knew it was an accident. Leo's was, too."

"Do you have a power?" It didn't occur to me that the question may have been too personal until I saw the fear and nervousness bubble in her gold eyes. She tinkered with something in her coat pocket before looking toward the ground.

With a heavy sigh, she nodded. Hazel told me her story. She spoke about how she could summon jewels in the earth, their curse, and how she lived in the past. Then she gave me a background about her life in Alaska, how she died, and how important her relationship was with Nico Di Angelo.

I had a foul taste in my mouth. The first thing I did after she finished her tale was apologize.

Hazel, the little angel she was, only smiled and shook her head. "Back at Camp, you were totally confident about your abilities. You told me that you'd been at Camp Jupiter for most of your life, so it made sense. You just…need to relearn everything."

I forgot the fact this conversation started with me asking about Leo. It was nice for a change though, talking to someone outside our little group of three and into the large seven. Nodding gently, I turned back to Leo, who seemed to have fallen asleep in his chair. My chest tightened. "The Jason Grace before I left. The Praetor. Would he have…would he have yelled at Leo the way that I did?"

She weighed the words I said in her head seriously, then shook her head reluctantly. "No. The Roman thing to do would probably be to kill him."

The electricity tingled in my fingers again and I found myself glaring at her—then had to back up. Some part of me knew that, anyway.

"You're not as Roman as you were," she whispered quietly. "You're different, but you're happier."

What she said tingled in my head for what seemed like ages. I stared into Hazel's gold eyes, which were as truthful and sweet as she was. "If…if I get up right now and go talk to Leo, are you going to trip me with your cavalry sword?"

A tiny smile unfolded across her face. She looked to Piper and Annabeth, making sure they were both still asleep, then whirled around. I could make out a flurry of golden brown hair pressed against the seats and a blanket the train stewardess gave us wrapped around her like a burrito.

Standing from my seat, I saw a golden wink before I stumbled across the train to my best friend. Just as I said, Leo was curled into a ball with the blanket fisted between his hands. I placed a hand on his shoulder, and it only took a little nudge to wake him up. "Leo?"

There was a groan, then Leo lifted his head to look at me. I'd never realized he was such a light sleeper.

Maybe he was still too sleepy, or maybe he wasn't right in the head at this point. Unfurling from his blanket tortilla, Leo lifted his arms like a small child asking for a parent to hug him. His demeanor was somber, eyes still glazed with slumber. I couldn't tell if he was still angry with me, so I sat down in the seat next to him and let Leo hug me. He unstrapped his seatbelt with incredible ease, crawled into my lap, and buried his face in the crook of my neck, blanket and all.

A breath shivered in my throat. We rode in silence, hearing the calm of the storm outside. It'd finally stopped raining, but clouds were still dark and ominous in the sky above. After a while, my leg was going numb and I had to adjust Leo in my lap.

"I'm sorry," I whispered. The guilt stung in my chest. The last time Leo and I had gotten in a fight was when we went against Medea. I felt like scum arguing with one of the only two people I could trust at Camp Halfblood, and I felt worse now. At least back then, I'd been provoked by a crazy witch lady.

Leo shrugged. "Water under the bridge."

He snuggled closer to me as though nothing else matter. I could feel his chest against mine and his breath on my neck. Leo radiated with warmth, whether it be his ability over fire or just…the warmth of his heart. Under the stormy clouds with my best friend this close to me, I couldn't feel any more relaxed. I didn't want to take the time to figure out why, either.

The problem was, I didn't know what was going on in his head. Leo refused to tell me what affects the arrow had on his thoughts, and I should have understood that if this was the workings of the Lust Arrow…his…thoughts weren't necessarily pure. I didn't care though.

"You won't let me help you," I muttered, "because the arrow's too much for you."

Leo moved his head. I'm pretty sure it was close to a nod, but then he jerked his shoulder. Maybe it was a shrug. "I _did_ let you help me."

"No, you didn't."

"I was t-trying to make it as _small _of doses as possible." I could feel him spike up again, like he would burn my entire body like he did my hand, but then it dropped. "That way you didn't _have_ to be around me all that time."

"You're an idiot_, _Valdez."

There was a quick bristle on my neck; I think Leo had snickered. Hearing that in my ear, the nerves I had were suddenly melting. I know this sounded weird, but it was just _like_ us to look over the stress of the situation. It didn't matter that Leo and I fought, not now when we were together.

"You don't get it," Leo said simply. There was bitterness to his voice that burned through my chest.

"I _want_ to—"

"I _don't_ want you to."

"Leo—" My voice stopped there before my frustrations could voice through again. The point of coming over and apologizing was so we didn't get into another argument. I wanted Leo to understand all I had in mind was his safety, and that needed to be done before an incident like this morning happened again.

He pulled away from me, and all the warmth he provided disappeared. I felt cold. Goosebumps rose beneath my black rain jacket and I couldn't bring myself to continue my sentence. Leo crawled off my lap into an opposing seat and stared down at my hands. To the one he'd burnt.

It had gone numb from the pain after Annabeth dripped some nectar on it. It hurt to flex, but luckily was not the hand I held my gladius with. Still, Leo looked annoyed.

"Sorry," he mumbled.

"Me too." Hopefully he knew I meant for electrocuting him. And yelling at him. Leo shook his head, seething in frustration and muttering a Spanish curse beneath his breath. Suddenly I felt worse than I did before, unable to figure out the right thing to say. I decided to change the subject. "What was your mother's name?"

Brown eyes looked to me, wary and foreboding. From the way he gazed at me, I could imagine what he thought was, _'You're treading Restricted Area, Grace_,' but I was curious. He only spoke of his mother a few times during the eight months I knew him. "Esperanza Valdez. Her name meant 'hope.'"

"Esperanza," I repeated. The name fell off my tongue like a hum. I said it a few times in my head to get a better taste.

"You know the story. She taught me Morse code and opened up my world to the idea of inventions and stuff."

"She was beautiful."

Saying that caught Leo off guard. He looked me in the eye, wondering why the hell I would be dreaming of his mother and why on earth I would mock him on such a delicate subject.

I shook my head in ease. "I saw her in a dream." After that, the rest of the information left my mouth before I could filter it. I told him about how I saw him at the elementary school with the attendant, saw Esperanza Valdez shout and yell at the guy watching over Leo, then marched off. He nodded, face growing pale. I was pretty sure he'd had the same dream.

Finally he breathed. Leo stared out the window and wrapped the blanket around himself. He got a little misty-eyed but I pretended not to notice. "Social workers were always getting on her case and the way she took care of me. She made enough for ends meet and loved me, no matter what they said. Simple as that."

Nodding gently, I bit the inside of my mouth. "I'm sorry."

"No. Dude, it's fine." Leo let out a chuckle. Its hollowness made my ears hurt, and he hunched his shoulders to his ears. "When I was little, my mother was my idol. She taught me all these things, kept telling me about my dad. I never would have thought I would end up at Camp Halfblood and meet you. Well, not in that order. You have both shoes this time."

He tapped my foot with his, a smile quirking at his lip.

I thought over the gesture. Then reached over to kiss him.

It was nothing more than a quick peck, but Leo froze, his entire face turning red as I curled back into my seat. He looked to me in surprise, his jaw dropping.

"I…I know you were mad that I brought your mother into that argument, but I had a good reason. I just didn't think about it at the time."

You know how the words sounded like the right words to tell him while Leo looked like he was about to barf? They sounded like I was fourteen again and trying to get used to the changes in my voice. I reached over, placed a hand on his lap, and forced him to look at me. Taking in a breath, I felt the warmth tingle between us. Leo still looked like his brain disappeared but less so.

"Look, Leo, the _point_ I've been trying to make all day is…I don't want to lose you. Not as a friend, not as a comrade." I looked him in the eye, hoping I didn't look as ridiculous as I felt. "Your mother knew that you were destined for great things. And there's seven of us. When we get to Greece and face the Doors of Death, I want it to be with my best friend at my side."

This time, he wasn't going to run away. I'd taken the aisle seat, and we were both too tired from the earlier argument to hurt each other again. Leo was still looking at me like I'd grown an extra head or chewed an entire stapler. But…_this time_, he took in a breath.

Leo buried his face in his hands. "You're serious."

"Very serious."

"You have no problem of being at my side, twenty-four seven, losing your chance in the most romantic city in the universe to woo the girl you're crazy about."

"Piper and I talked about it." I nodded. "She was actually the one who suggested it."

Leo tilted his head back as if he were trying to ask for one final prayer from his father. I pried his hands away, this time taking a firmer tone.

"Leo, I'm going to electrocute you again if you actually say no. And this time I won't apologize." Which was probably a lie. If I ever electrocuted anyone, I would apologize.

Fortunately for me, Leo either took the threat seriously or gave in. He made a miserable noise, looking to the ceiling for any more emotional support before he finally said something. "It's not just going to be kissing. I can't promise you this weird arrow-disiac-thing won't want to go below the belt. Or on bare chest. Or necking. Lots of necking."

Surprisingly, I only nodded. I was determined for Leo to agree to my terms without hitch, and that involved not complaining about it. "Anything you need, Leo. _Anything._"

"Fine. Maybe the longer this goes, I'll teach you how to be a mindblowing kisser for Beauty Queen." Leo's cheeks bloomed pink, and he forced a hand out. I stared at it a moment before I realized he wanted me to hold it.

Then kept staring at it. You would think a guy that had been sitting in my lap for ten minutes wouldn't be embarrassed about holding hands. Though maybe Leo was still trying to fight off the levels of intimacy the arrow was forcing on him.

I took it carefully in my own, covering his fingers with mine. His hands weren't necessarily smaller than mine. In fact, they were tan and warm, with calluses and bruises on his fingers from working dutifully on the ship and other things. Leo's blush contrasted the pouty look he had on his face.

"Happy?" he asked, deadpanned.

"Maybe. If you take back the comment that I'm not a mindblowing kisser."

"_Pshh_, in your dreams, Grace." He split into a grin, daring me to go against what he just said. "Trust me. If you ever land a mindblowing kiss that leaves me hunching over and weak in the knees, I'll tell you."

I smiled back. "I'll keep that in mind."

We stared at each other for a while, daring the other to say something or talk bigger than what was already thrown. Finally, Leo turned his head, his lips curling into a mischievous smirk worthy of Hermes and eyes shimmering with a different kind of life. "Well. Now that we've settled to a compromise on the awkward situation in which I want to throw you into bed, how about we change the subject to something more family-oriented and fun?"

"Super Smash Camp?"

"Good boy, Grace. Good boy."

**xxx**

We talked about different things. Leo had this way of talking about anything and everything that you couldn't help but find it interesting. That was probably how Steve Jobs was able to market so well—not being able to shut up so companies would sponsor him. Anything Leo said, I was able to counter. On the exterior level of Camp Halfblood and dealing with the prophecy, we worked well. When we really delved into it, Leo and I talked like geeks and like regular teenagers. Comic books. Supernatural. Doctor Who, even, where he babbled about one day building the actual TARDIS if he could.

But eventually, I fell asleep. When you had all this pent up energy that couldn't be used, you tended to tire yourself out. To show my cooperation, I'd taken part of Leo's blanket, put it on my lap and leaned into his weight. He gulped, but as soon as I mumbled a _g'night_, I knocked out. I didn't realize that until I was standing in the café in Brest, where this whole mess started.

The entire area was empty, even the cashier who took orders. Music played in the background, and it soothed my chest. I didn't want to leave.

"Oh, there you are. I've been waiting for ages! Come here, Jason dear!"

When I turned, the first thing I saw was Piper.

My heart skipped a beat, eyes widening at the sight, but then it wasn't Piper anymore. She sort of reminded me of Reyna, with her long flowing hair and piercing eyes, then my sister Thalia under the moonlight. My words choked in my throat. She turned into this other woman next, one with beautiful golden hair and the elegance of Thalia's demeanor, but it was only a second, then she disappeared into a different form.

I couldn't describe her. All I knew was, I was staring at the most beautiful person I'd ever met. No, a _goddess_.

"You're magnificent," I whispered. The way it came out of my mouth reminded me how I felt after Piper would charmspeak.

Venus looked to me, and in one of her transformations, she reminded me of Cupid, with amore in her eyes and a wispiness to her curls. She held up a croissant, a smile curtsying across her lips. "Would you join me for a snack?"

In that second, I hesitated. I suddenly remembered the last time I spoke to Venus, she left me with a nagging feeling that bothered me up until...even now. The sensation I felt whenever I spoke to Piper, or even before I left when I tried talking to Reyna.

"Oh, you don't remember what I told you last time anyway. And you don't trust a god. Yes, yes, I know." Her voice sung like a Disney princess's, only better. Venus gestured to the seat across from her in the booth and her smile widened. "Been there, done that. Let's talk about the same new things, _oui_?"

"You…brought me here for something?" I asked, feeling self conscious. Reluctantly, I took a seat and looked to her.

It wasn't every day that a god spoke to you. Leo mentioned Hephaestus had communicated with him against Zeus's rules, and I'm sure Venus was doing the same. After all, she'd done it before. Minor gods were frolicking around doing who-knows-what, but…you would be crazy to not notice someone as beautiful as Venus missing from Mount Olympus.

Venus snapped her fingers, and a plate of croissants appeared in front of me. Reluctantly, I picked it up and took a bite. I wonder if dream food would actually satisfy my stomach. "You're a smart boy, Mister Grace. No wonder Piper enjoys your company so much."

Halfway through chewing the croissant, I froze and almost choked. _Right._ I was also talking to Venus, the Goddess of Love…and Piper's mother. The horror must have been seen in my eyes. Suddenly good table etiquette became a very important thing in my mind.

She waved her hand like that didn't matter. "Oh, don't worry. That's not the reason why I've called you here. Well—I suppose it is. It's half the reason why you're here."

"Uhuh," I nodded dumbly. I think the croissant was stuck between my teeth.

Venus tutted me, reminding me so much like a mother would. She patted her lips with a napkin, but I couldn't see anything wrong with her makeup. She was perfect: beautiful without trying and absolute perfection. The way she morphed now, she truly looked like Piper's mother, and everything Piper would be one day. The only thing different was her eyes, but I couldn't think of why.

"Do you know why I'm here?" she asked.

"Unh-uh." Sure. Looking at how terrible my speech pattern was to Venus, I looked pretty stupid. But I think today, it was safe to say that I'd said less intelligent things to my best friend. I hesitated, then put the croissant down. "Is this about how Piper treated Cupid?"

She tutted again. Her gestures, the way she held herself reminded me just like her son. "Gods don't play favorites among their children. Not even between the immortal ones and the half-blooded ones. Silly boy!" Venus squealed. "I'm here because you're in love!"

_In love_? My head spun, all words evaporating from my mind. "But…I-I mean…we haven't gone on a date yet—"

"Oh, you tragic heroes." She waved her hand like a fan and cross-examined me. "I'm leaving my daughter out of this. This is all about _you._"

"But…but…" That _involved_ her daughter.

"Have you ever wondered," Venus said lightly, "why you are so determined to have your best friend by your side? Or why you are so unsure of what to do with yourself, when cute little Percy and Leonardo hang out?"

I froze. When she said _Leonardo_, I had to run the entire conversation in my head four or five times to make sure I heard her correctly. "Wait. You're…suggesting that…this is about Leo?"

She took my question in great consideration. "Hmmmm, yes. I never appreciate it when Eros tampers with what I have planned, but that's what makes love exciting, yes?" Her eyes shimmered so beautifully I got lost in them. That pick-up line finally had some sense. "Not knowing what to expect."

My cheeks flared. Sure, I knew that Leo and I were closer in many ways than other best friends. Not very many would be able to keep a cool head in this situation. No one…ever pointed out the oddness in it though. "B-But…you're not possibly thinking—"

"Thinking. Thought it. Done." Venus hummed and summoned a beautifully carved tea set. She pressed the tea cup to her lips and took a long sip. "Now. Listen, sweetheart." I listened. "In time, you will remember what I told you. My son has already given you a hint on what to expect."

She waved her hand, and the gorgeously crafted teapot turned into a tiny vial no bigger than the palm of my hand with clear fluid plugged with a cork.

"When you wake up," Venus said, voice dangerously sweet like honey, "you will find this vial in your pocket."

I looked at it skeptically. There was nothing in the world I wanted more right now than to please the Goddess of Love and Beauty, but even I knew better than to accept a gift from _any _god. In the words of my best friend, they usually came with Super Ultra Awfully-Mega Bad Consequences_. SUAM-B_ for short. "What does it do?"

The way she looked at me next—playful, amused, and a little bit _too_ knowing—made me queasy. "This vial contains a serum that will make all the feelings Leo has for you disappear."

"You're…saying that it will cure what Cupid has done to him." I blinked. That couldn't have been true. The amazement showed on my face as I did a double-take of it. The serum inside the tiny parcel looked no different from water.

Venus nodded in confirmation, the smile on her face spreading wider. "However, it is magically sealed. The vial will open when the time is right."

My heart sunk. Staring at the vial, I couldn't believe what I was hearing. "So…you want to give me a faulty antidote."

"I suppose that's what you would call it, yes." She giggled like a little girl. It was pretty, but I also reminded myself it was incredibly scary. "But! Every _spectacular _love story needs interesting plot devices! The game of love is very unpredictable, Jason, sweetie. So much more interesting than beating people up. And fighting! Oh, and American Football. I will never understand why men fine that so interesting."

I didn't agree with her on the last instance. In fact I was still staring at the vial like it was about to explode. She had taken my arm and put it in the palm of my hands. From my understanding, I was apparently supposed to explore feelings I didn't know I had.

"But this makes no sense," I protested. This time, I wanted to battle her. I didn't remember what she told me all those years ago, which was a frustration all its own. Now, the Goddess of Love was planting an idea in my head that had never been before. At least, not scathed. "Lady Venus, I…I don't mean it just as flattery. Piper is the one I like. Wh…what's happening now is just to keep Leo safe. I would do _anything_ for him."

It was crazy, but I think I saw a glimpse of sadness in her eyes. However, that was the thing about Gods and Goddesses. Emotions like sadness and pity were a mortal concept. I was starting to madly wonder why and how she was managing to interfere with our situation, especially so far away from America.

"As I said." Lady Venus kept her tone light. She lowered her head, brushing a delicate hand through beautiful hair. "Love is a challenge, sweetheart. And you, Jason Grace, are a man of raw emotion. You did not realize it as a Roman, but it was a clear drive in your heart. What you've wanted. It's what makes you…you."

I wanted to ask more, but didn't get the chance.

"Oh, I _do_ enjoy these chats with my daughter's sweet friends. But it's time for me to leave. Good luck, Jason dear!~"

**xxx**

Leo had shaken me awake. The train had stopped at its halfway point with passengers now lining up to unload. Behind us, our friends were having some trouble waking up too. I groaned, rubbing my aching neck, and stretched.

"For a group of demigods that are supposed to fend off evil Mother Earth," Leo muttered, scratching at his curls, "we sure do sleep a lot."

I nodded in agreement, still exhausted.

"Apparently we're going to eat dinner here. Piper's gonna make a phone call to her dad so he knows to expect us." Standing to his feet, Leo offered me a hand. As we filtered into the aisle, my head still hurt from the weird sitting position.

"Do you feel better?" I asked.

"Yeah." A smirk quirked across Leo's face and he looked me up and down. "What about you? You look like you've seen a ghost. Or a god with a SUAM-B agenda."

That made me tuck a hand in my pocket. The instant I did, I felt my heart beat faster. I feigned a smile. "Just a weird memory, I guess."

Luckily for me, Leo usually waited until I was ready to talk about those 'weird memories.' His smile faded and he nodded sagely before tentatively wrapping a hand around my own. He seemed…more like himself. Less likely to run away. "You've got me if you need me, man."

"Thanks." I meant it. But the word balled up in my throat, making it hard to come out.

In my pocket and beneath my hand was the vial.

**Xxx**

**Author's Note: **

Sorry this took so long to come out! Thanks so much for the reviews; and looks like the story's gonna get going. (: Thanks so much for reading so far!


	6. VI: Leo

**Chapter VI: **Leo

I had a lot of explaining to do.

There was a lot on my mind—so much that it kind jumbled around in my head, and when I _tried_ to make a sound, it was like all those words were lodged in my throat as though I'd swallowed one of Coach Hedge's tin cans. Part of it was the arrow. _Yeah._ I didn't care what anyone said, but that arrow definitely fucked my brain up. And judging by the emotional and physical range it managed to spiral me through, I wasn't quite sure it was this stupid _Lust_ Arrow people kept calling it.

The thing was, if it wasn't a _Lust_ Arrow, I was too scared to find out which one I'd really been hit with. I'll give you a hint: I don't think it was the black one.

_Because_ I didn't think it was this red arrow everyone kept feeding me, there was a way my psyche just handled it. The tiniest thing seemed to set me off, and if I felt a "slight" disdain for something, it was like I wanted to burn a city to the ground. Now, imagine that power on Jason.

I'd been attracted to Jason before. I didn't know how long, but I didn't realize it until we were at Camp Halfblood, and by that time, Piper and Jay already had claim-sies on each other. My two best friends were the most important thing in the world to me—even if they tended to leave me out of the picture. We were a family, and had Piper not asked me to join them on our first search for Cupid, I think I would have forgotten that.

This…_arrow_ made things worse. I noticed everything about Jason—more than before. The way that scar on his lip seemed to dance when he smiled, the way his eyes were as calm as a blue sky or shivered like an upcoming storm. His hair, his chiseled face. The way he'd flash me concerned looks—it just made me wonder, why _couldn't_ we be a couple?

Let's not forget. Jason Grace here was taking the news pretty well—I should have been happy he was ready to respond to my…_eccentric_ requests no matter how ridiculous they would soon become. I wasn't. The more he fought for me, the more I fell for him. The arrow managed to do a good job inducing feelings, but those emotions struck me in the gut. That was why I _needed_ to resist—I…I didn't want to do this. Not this fake…_whatever-it-is_. He was way too comfortable with the situation that it almost…made me wonder…

No. Even now, holding Jason's hand and jingling my hand in my toolbelt, I knew I was getting my hopes up. Hope made the difference in everything. The thought that Jason could even _like_ someone as weird and so…_me_-ish was a thought that would make a giant laugh. That was probably how we'd defeat them—say, 'Hey, you see that scrawny kid there next to the handsome one? Yeah. They're together' and watch as Gaia and they doubled over with laughter before dying from asphyxiation.

Standing there awkwardly on the platform, watching as Percy fiddle with the hackysack he'd bought at one of the gift shops (trying and failing to teach Frank, who managed to kick it into Annabeth's eye), I had a hand under Jason's. It was weird leaning into his weight—I couldn't adjust to it. Every now and then, Piper would break conversation with Hazel and look our way, but I couldn't really look her in the eye.

Instead, Jason carried on a conversation about the different types of weapons constructed from Imperial Gold with one of us chiming in on occasion. Me, I wanted so desperately to get my hands on that stuff and make something cool. Percy occasionally popped in because Jay mentioned swords a lot, then Frank had this queasy look on his face. For a Child of Ares—_Mars_, he preferred a bow and arrows.

I kept an eye on the way Jason moved his mouth. A blithe smile adorned his face, and it moved so _fascinatingly_, with pearly whites peaking through and that one speck of spit that managed to poke me in the eye. His Adam's apple moved up and down, and the _creases_ of his shirt moved as he shifted his body just a little, even if it was just to grab his _gladius_.

His eyes moved from person to person, occasionally talking to Percy (apparently they sorta got along now. Go figure), then briefly looking at Hazel, who smiled. They were light, reflecting the rain clouds above. The closer we got to Paris, the less there seemed to be, but that was okay. I don't know why, but I just really liked the thought of the weather.

And of Jason. Naturally the thing to do would be to kiss him.

So, it went a little bit like this.

"Having a gladius is different blahblah, I used to have a javelin too—mmmpphh?"

Sometimes it was like I knew what I wanted in my mind, and before I could apply a rational thought to it, my body responded. So I stood at the edge of my feet, head raised, and kissed my best friend. It wasn't like how he kissed me earlier on the train, but not like our kiss on the ship. Jason wasn't all that experienced with kissing, or maybe he was just clueless thinking this proximity wouldn't fascinate me. Never the less, I pulled him down, caught his lips and we kissed.

He tasted like the donuts we had on the train, but still like him. So…sweet and crispy. I think he kissed back, though Jason's motives by this point, I could never understand. Maybe kissing back was a natural thing. I once kissed Malcolm from the Athena Cabin without thinking, and after he dropped all the scrolls and text books in his hands (promptly on _my_ feet, mind you), he kissed me back.

Still, somehow I managed to nibble on his lip for a while, holding his mouth between mine. I had a hand pulling down on his shirt to get a better angle, while the other one scrunched down the small of his back. Our noses smushed, teeth clanged, and shockingly, he let my tongue glide against his.

No. Seriously—shocking. It felt like the tingle I got fixing a loose cable, then getting electrocuted just the slightest bit. Before I could discover what it was, one of the gang made a sound.

"Guys. _Guys_, the train's here."

Yeah. I was pretty close to undoing Jason's pants right now. My hand had gone somewhere—maybe to try and jerk him off. We'd be good jerk buddies.

"Stop!" This time, we did stop. Only because Piper charmspoke us to do so.

Hey, sometimes a demigod's beautiful voice could overcome powerful Greek/Roman entities and their weird powers when _said_ entities were trying to turn you and your best friend into fuck buddies. Or, you know. S-Something just as clever and half the length of that explanation. Jason had a hand on the small of my back as we parted. He looked dazed, with this rush of red that made his cheeks glow—absolutely adorable. My lips still tingled from being against his—though if it were because Jason was his own power surge or because it was a little cold outside, I wasn't sure.

Anyway, let's pay attention to all the weird places _my_ hands had ended up. Instead of looped together chastely like they'd been earlier, one of my hands had climbed beneath his shirt, where I palmed his left nipple. The other one tangled through his hair—which was once neat and tidy, now ruffled. I think Jason was too disoriented to really notice.

I recoiled, backing up until I was two feet away and started on an apology. To my surprise, Jason gripped me by the wrist and pulled me to his side until our hips were touching. He blinked a couple of times, grip still tight, like he knew I wanted to crawl under a bench and die.

"So um," he murmured lowly. He swallowed hard, blue eyes still unfocused. "I think I'm the only one that used a coin like Ivlivs…and it was different. I miss it. Yeah."

It wasn't _too_ bad. Other than the burning sensations in my cheeks and the fact I was trying very hard not to light myself on fire. Jason kept a close proximity, fighting through his own embarrassment. Hazel fanned herself in this cute little way, Frank looked into space like he found the most interesting dust puff ever and needed to reunite it with its family or something. Percy looked amused—he tended to, since he was the only one that knew my secret. Annabeth, who was basically mother hen on the ship and saw most mythological things on a regular basis, _tried_ to look calm. She had this straight-lined look, pink in the face.

Oddly enough, Piper was calmest. Her stance was tense, like she was struggling to hold her emotions in. I couldn't blame her—even with Jason at my side, I was trying with all my willpower not to do something incredibly stupid. I did stupid things a lot.

Luckily for me, my best friend snapped out of it. He nudged me in the shoulder, then led us onto the train with an easy going smile. It was precious.

"I will never understand you." I lamented and rolled my eyes. First, Jason told me how much he loathed the way I hung out with Percy. He'd fixed that—being possessive was kind of irritating and too Edward Cullen for me. Then when I got shot with this arrow, _he_ basically latched onto _me._ I'd gotten more than enough of Jason's bare skin between my fingers. My ears were so red that I was convinced they were firing off steam.

"That's the beauty of it." Jason's eyes glittered and he lowered his head. Maybe it was so I could get a better look at him. Or maybe so he could see how embarrassed I felt. "We can be best friends and you never have to understand a thing I do."

"You're _kidding._"

"You talk too much. Don't make me kiss you again."

This may be a surprise, but I was actually a little scared of that thought. The Jason I knew—you know, beneath the, '_I'm the Son of Jupiter! Pull my finger and be electrocuted!' _spiel (don't worry, no one's ever actually pulled his finger), I thought I could read Jason pretty well. Unlike how he looked—rugged and strong pretty boy with an athletic build and blond hair (_yum_)—he was a pretty thoughtful kid. His brow creased together when he was lost in his mind, the corner of his lip curling tightly. He didn't want to confront unless needed—and even then, he would rather go an entire fight with his _gladius_ to shut someone up before ever mentioning who his father was.

The Jason Grace I thought I knew was shy. That was why he had so much trouble asking a pretty girl like Piper out. He was hesitant because it was so much easier for him to do the Son of Lightning act than actually talk.

Yet here…_now…_

"What are you thinking about?" Jason finally let go of my hand when we settled into the seat. He sat on the aisle seat while Percy took the window seat, pouting a little since Annabeth chose to be the odd one out this time. I could faintly see her dialing away on Daedelus's laptop. Piper, Hazel, and Frank sat in front of us.

"Kissing you," I said instantly, unashamed. Then bit the inside of my lip. That hadn't been the whole truth, but they were the first two words that came to mind.

Jason's face scrunched up in this cutely-stupid way. "Uh, do you need to again?"

"N-No." I looked to Percy, who smiled a little. The way he looked sometimes, you'd wonder if we picked up some bum that was sunbathing on the beach. At this moment, he looked like he needed a punch in the face. Maybe it was just me, but Children of the Big Three were dopes. Dopes that did not understand the direness of being hot and horny after getting shot by one of Eros's arrows.

"So…you two aren't gonna starting giving each other blowjobs while I'm asleep, are you?" Percy mused.

Jason glared. "That's not how it works. I…think."

"You'd be asleep anyway," I supplied. My cheeks grew hot, but I kept babbling. "And if I want Jason to drop on his knees and suck me off, I'll make him." That conjured a squeak from the back of Jason's throat. _Yeah._

Fortunately that shut Percy up. I think he was trying to be a good friend—you know, lighten up the mood with a little sarcasm. I could relate to that, but another quality to note about Jason was that he could be Mister Serious most of the time. Sarcasm and his seriousness did not always go hand-in-hand together.

I shoved my hands in my tool belt, which had not been taken off since we left the ship. My hands jingled in the first thing they thought of: screws, nuts, bolts, and any other scraps that I could think about. I pressed my head against my seat—and then Jason surprised me by nudging me in the shoulder.

His blue eyes glowed with worry. "_Do_ you need a kiss?"

_Yes. Yes yes yes. _"You know, eventually you're gonna run out of lines for this Prince Charming act."

Most people when I said something that dry, they frowned and did a double take. Frank certainly did. Instead, Jason responded with a smile almost immediately. He touched my shoulder again. "Tell me when I do."

"I will," I insisted. A little smirk couldn't help but curl on my face. "And then I'm going to rub your face in it and tell you _I-Told-You-So._"

His chuckle warmed my ears. It was different from when the fire in me was setting everything ablaze—a warmth worthy of Hestia's sacred hearth. Blond eyebrows furrowed together, his smile shrinking just slightly. Jason slumped in his seat and shoved his hands into his pockets. He'd been doing that a lot since we got off from the other train. Part of me wondered if it were a dream that had spooked him. According to Jay, he'd experienced one of my dreams—the one about my mother and one of the many ways that I would make her laugh. Whatever he dreamed about the second time on the train, I apparently had been blocked out.

I didn't bother asking. Once my eyes followed his hands to his pockets, they went further—between his legs and just…_stayed_ there. I wondered how big Jason was whenever he was hard. I wondered how swollen it could get—how stiff his dick would be between my hands. Or…in my mouth. The aisle was closed off. The gang would be asleep soon enough. I could…I could unbuckle his belt. Slide those pants off, ease them off his thighs. Lick it.

Oh, _gods. _

"Leo?" Percy asked, this time sounding genuinely concerned.

I licked my lips, and this low guttural sound came from the back of my throat. "I'm fine."

_His_ hands were big, too. I meant Jason's. Earlier, he only had one of them curled on the small of my back, but…_gods_, they were huge. I'd never been one to have a hand fetish, but there was a way his fingers were long, stiff, and callused that made me like them. They curled around the hilt of his _gladius_ with ease. I could imagine them pushing the edge of my shirt up to my sternum, then graze on my sides…push my pants down, thumb my hip bones—

"I need a moment." I stood up abruptly, tripped over Jason's feet and stumbled into the aisle toward the restroom.

Jason started to stand up. "Do you need me to—"

"No!" I shouted. I slammed the restroom door shut behind me.

**xxx**

Later, Jason was miffed that I didn't invite him into the lavatory with me. Just to shut him up, I kissed the idiot on the mouth and forced myself in the seat between them. I think Percy noticed I was walking a little funny—but I pretended to wave it off like it was nothing. Jay grabbed one of my hands and inspected it. I turned red—but then he said something else.

"Bite marks," he said flatly, like he hadn't realized it before. Couldn't blame him—they were mostly healed.

"Pain," I blabbered, then took that hand and shoved it in my tool belt. "The arrow would make me hallucinate and give me all these vivid thoughts about you, alright? This…_pain_ made me remember where I was. Besides, it's like biting finger nails. No big deal."

To me, the subject was opened and then closed. I hadn't thought much of it since yesterday after being shot, when I was _trying_ to avoid Jason. Now, most of these thoughts just gave me headaches. Kissing Jason managed to make my mind fuzzy. It wanted more, but I still had enough conscious control to keep from feeling him up.

Jason grabbed my hand again. I slapped it away. I was getting tired of having the human electrical handcuff on me.

He made a face—hard and stormy, but then soft. "You use these hands to build things, Leo. Greek-Roman magic is strong and you really could have bitten off both of your hands. What would you do then?"

Oh. I blinked, suddenly staring at my hands again in a different light. My fingers were long and bulbous—callused, from plenty of months tinkering and working, with crisp fingernails and oil that never seemed to come out under my fingernails. The little crescents on each knuckle suddenly felt disgusting and ugly.

"I'm sorry," I whispered, like the realization dawned on me. I knew I wasn't apologizing to Jay, but…my hands. What Son of Hephaestus would I be if I couldn't use them? And…_Jason_ was the one who pointed this out.

Percy nudged me in the other arm; I hadn't even realized he was paying attention to this conversation. "Hey, just…don't do that anymore, alright? Biting yourself. It's creepy."

"You've got me now," Jason agreed, and they rarely agreed on anything.

My first instinct was always to give a stupid comment—something that could either be taken as an insult, something mean and hurtful, or actually a compliment. Sometimes I was just being an idiot and blabbered on ridiculously. However, looking between the two of them, the two Leaders of their camp, my heart stopped in its chest.

I nodded grimly, this time leaning into Jason's weight. He smelled zesty, like lightning, and cherries.

When we finally arrived in Paris, we were all pretty wary. After being attacked by Storm Spirits and having to repair the ship, all we'd done was rest. Rest, rest, rest. I may have just been the behind-the-scenes guy, but I didn't get to do much other than tinker with this tiny new project while Jay was dozing.

I already told Jason I wasn't going to make him hold my hand every time we went somewhere. He glared, but we settled that I'd walk next to him in case I needed a kiss or two. The sad part was how blunt that sounded coming from Jay's mouth.

Regardless, we had to do some pretty pathetic things to get some change for the payphone. Hazel found a hat and after cleaning it out, used it do magic tricks and summon a bunny (Frank) or any other animal from the brim. Percy, Annabeth, and Piper took off their socks and did a puppet show entitled, '_The Stupid Ameri-socks Who Didn't Understand French_." Jason amazed someone by charging their phone.

Pathetic, right? This was the most energy we'd expended since getting off the ship.

I sat and watched, trying not to look interesting. Metal and machines? I could do well with that. People? Not as much. Everything was going pretty well until Piper spoke up again, putting her socks up and throwing away the four raisins she'd used for eyes.

"_Et maintenant!"_ She shouted_. "S'il vous plaît donner un accueil chaleureux à Leo, le Firebreather!"_

My heart stopped. I was sitting on the bench, wagging my legs and wondering why the hell they would make a bench so tall, because there was definitely _no_ way I was this short. There were two words in Piper's sentence that definitely caught my ar. _Leo_ and _Firebreather. _

We managed to gather a decent crowd outside the train station. In the hat Frank the Bunny was snoozing in, people had thrown in some coins or whatever the heck French currenly was. Piper's charmspeak pulled people in, too. The problem was that we needed enough to haul two taxis for all seven of us. I glared at Piper—sure, I could make a living being the class clown, but uh, _fire_ acts weren't usually part of the skit.

Too late; she charmspoke them to look at me, and was now smiling like, _Hey, you gotta do something embarrassing too! _

She was _very_ lucky that I loved her like a sister. Otherwise I'd wring her neck. Cracking my hands and clearing my throat, I raised my head and summoned a GORGEOUS smirk. "That's right, folks! I am _Leo, le Firebreather!" _My French wasn't that good; I was tempted to throw in a _'que?' _to see if anyone would nod.

Fortunately, Piper was the perfect translator. Jason instinctively gathered to the left of me—save a few feet, and Piper to the right. The gang decided to stand against the crowd, giving me ten yards to myself as I apparently tried to summon my inner dragon.

"I will now breathe fire as though I was a dragon! You may call me Festus!" Piper translated everything I said, so I decided to take it a step further. "Piper wears Power Rangers pajamas!" She cut off in the middle of the speech to hit me over the head and yelped something about Cherokee eagles.

_Anyway_, I was in the spotlight with two of my best friends beside me. It was kind of implied that you didn't use your powers for selfish reasons, but I think this counted as a 'not-selfish' reason. Looking between them, I glared playfully at Piper, who smiled back with a _little_ amusement. I think my awesome ways were finally rubbing off on her.

Cupping my hands around my mouth, I heard Beauty Queen shout something that probably meant _'Step Back'!_ in French, and closed my eyes. I'd summoned white, hot and intense flames before. Festus's head incinerated any monsters that dared attack us on the _Argo II_, and that was about ten feet in length and width. The key here wasn't power—as weird as the French looked, I didn't see a reason to burn them. So my goal was to create something shallow and flashy.

I took in a breath—so tight that my throat constricted and my stomach boiled, then blew out like letting the air out of the balloon. The fire wasn't as big as Festus could manage—Hades, no. It was about five feet in front of me, as tall as Percy, and maybe two-feet wide. Most importantly, it wasn't that powerful. The worse you could get from it, I assumed, would be mild sunburn. Jason and Piper understood that as they stood next to me.

As soon as it was over, I could feel my cheeks turn red. The audience applauded—after all, they just thought we were seven foreign kids with a really good circus act. Fire in front of Piper and Jason had become innate; an instinct to save them, but mostly as a last resort. The others warmed up to it pretty quickly, but sometimes it still made me feel like an outsider.

Euros began to fill our little hat in no time. Hazel picked up Frank the Bunny, kissed him on the forehead and lectured him about not eating our earnings.

"Good job," Jason whispered in my ear. I shuddered. Before I could stop myself, I looped my hand into his and tried not to swoon when he gave it a squeeze. _Fuck_ this arrow.

It was roughly a ten minute phone call as Piper spoke to her father. She got misty-eyed, so we all stayed at the front of the station, pretending we hadn't noticed. When she came back, she confirmed the address, and managed to haul two taxis. Percy whistled appreciatively.

We were filing in each one in no particular order: Annabeth, Hazel, Percy, and then me. There was no room left in the car. Suddenly, Jason looked panicked, throwing me looks of concern.

"Maybe you and I should catch the second one."

I shook my head, getting out of the car only a brief moment. I had my foot at the door. "You're only a few feet away. Think _logically_ on this one." I swallowed hard, forcing myself to look directly into those blue eyes. They looked sincerely worried, but then I reminded myself I was being treated like I had a horrible disease. "Besides. You'll be with Piper in the other car, Grace. Give her…the time of day or something while I'm not around. Okay?"

Jason was hesitant. He shoved his hands in his pockets like he'd been doing for a while, akin to when I was jingling my tool belt for scraps. Finally, he nodded, then kissed me.

_Gods. _

"Be careful," he whispered, voice an octave lower. Blue eyes did a full look over, and then Jason went to the second taxi.

I must have been standing there for ages, shocked. Of course I knew he was willing to be responsive to this stupid…_condition_, b-but…it kept catching me off guard when _he_ would lean into kiss _me._ I finally snapped out of my shock when Percy grabbed me by the pant leg and told me to shut the door.

Once that happened, we went moving in silence. My cheeks were red, and I looked to my feet.

"So," Percy started in good conversation, "you two seem to be making it work."

Shrugging, I simply looked at my feet. After we made up for the umpteenth time, the team basically gave up. They walked on rice paper, very concerned on what was going on and a little pissed Jason kept taking the initiative. I had to say; never thought that so many people could ever be so concerned about my wellbeing. All I had to do was get shot by a horny arrow. Go figure.

Jason wasn't among happy people at the moment, but I assumed so long as I wasn't having a black out and spazzing…I was okay. I shoved my hands in my tool belt and felt for random scraps that would become something later. Sometimes I felt that for half the things I built there wouldn't be a purpose for them until much later.

"He doesn't understand the feelings that keep bubbling from the arrow," I muttered hollowly. My mind went back to the train, reminded of the tautness of his arms, and that good-natured smile. Even his _eyelashes_ were blond. I'd always known that, but until yesterday we were never in close enough proximity for me to get a good look at his face. They fluttered. Like _bird wings. _

"He cares for you." Green eyes scanned me thoughtfully, and an earnest smile fell across his face, followed by that Famous Jackson eyebrow arched in its troublemaker fashion. "You two have a really interesting relationship."

I didn't think much of it, but Hazel nodded encouragingly, the gold in her eyes shimmering. "Jason trusts you. _A lot._"

The compliments were making my cheeks turn red. That was probably weird, but…_I_ knew Jay was my best friend. Sometimes it was just weird hearing people acknowledge he was my best friend, too. "He's going to be in over his head with this."

"That's alright. Part of what makes you a hero is being stupid. Like Seaweed Brain right here." Annabeth nudged her boyfriend for emphasis, who split into a grin and kissed her on the cheek. They were almost one of those sickeningly sweet couples you wanted to tell to shut up—then Annabeth would punch him or elbow him in the jugular, and you remembered they were a deadly duo.

I wanted to say something, but any other word got held on my tongue. My only argument would have been, _he's just being the best friend ever, _and that would have sounded weird.

Instead, Annabeth leaned over again, analyzing me thoughtfully in the way she would with a battle tactic. On the ship, she'd basically taken the reigns as leader unless Percy and Jason were willing to duke it out and argue. She was also the one that stressed Jason shouldn't fluster me more than he already has, but that strategy had gone down the drain early this morning.

"If Jason thinks this is the best way to help you," Annabeth muttered slowly, "then let him. Sometimes it's…_hard_ to simply sit back and watch things unravel. To let others go on a quest when it may involve someone dear to you."

The instant she said that, I remembered how torn she looked, unable to go on the quest to save Hera. She had a personal vendetta against the crazy goddess (pfft, don't we all?), but _Jason_ back then was supposed to be a sign to find Percy. Watching her now with happiness sparkling in her eyes, I realized how hard it must have been for her to sit back and watch the key to her boyfriend walk away without her. But…she was really comparing _that_ and what I was going to?

It was tempting to ask more, to ask if she _really_ thought the fact I didn't want Jason involved in a very Jason-involved problem was torturous for him, but I couldn't get the words out. Percy didn't seem to understand the comparison; he fiddled with the pen-form Riptide in his hand and smiled lopsidedly, despite the constant (affectionate) hits to the arm and leaned into her.

My eyebrows furrowed, lips stretched in a frown. "I hope you're right. Because I want to punch Jason as much as I want to kiss him."

The rest of the ride went by slowly. They tried to get my mind off of things, offering things I'd like. Apparently Percy was set on the idea of talking to horses in Super Smash Camp. He insisted Annabeth should have an Owl Punch and that Hazel should cause earthquakes and raise _schist. _("Excuse me?" "Inside joke.")

All the while, I started feeling queasy. The hairs on the back of my neck stood erect and goose bumps popped up like daisies on my arms. My throat constricted, cold sweat beading down my forehead, and by the time twenty minutes had passed and we reached our destination, I was leaning on Percy's weight with Hazel sneaking me some nectar when we were sure the taxi driver wasn't looking. When he did, Annabeth made gestures and Hazel spoke the little bit of Louisianian French she knew (the latter, he actually smiled at.)

The moment he stopped and Annabeth handed him the money, I was blue in the face and heaving. It was like I was suddenly going into withdrawal from a drug and needed it—_badly._

This was going to suck. Leaving the taxi and letting Jason sternly say, _'I Told You So.' _

As the view of a deluxe building came to view, I stumbled out of the car with an arm slung around Percy's shoulder. He jostled a lot. Don't tell anyone otherwise, but he was so _twitchy_ and the rocking wasn't helping. Fortunately, the moment we stepped out of the car, Jason was already walking our way. He paled, increasing his pace fully until I could feel his breath on my shoulder.

"_Leo._" Yeah. That didn't sound happy.

"Whoa, bro. Personal space." Percy jostled me (_again_) and pushed me toward Jason. My body felt so heavy that it felt like I'd been thrown like a ragdoll. The instant my chest hit Jason's, I buried my face in his neck, hands hooking behind shirt and nose breathing in the scent of my best friend.

He wrapped his arms around me, much like you'd see in the movies. Only, there wasn't that romantic sunset in the background, or the coastal breeze, and I was too out of breath to be swept away. The hairs on my arms burned and simmered against cold sweat that made me shiver. I clamped my eyes shut, focused on the way Jason held me, and tried to keep deep breaths. He made coaxing sounds as though I was sobbing, and—well, I hope I wasn't. This was embarrassing enough.

After a few moments, I felt better. It wasn't an immediate shift—my knees buckled weakly and I felt like a stick figure hugging a giant marshmallow. Jason's lips were at the tip of my ear. I didn't realize it until he spoke.

"You," he said in a low, _very irritated_ voice, "are _not_ doing that again."

I squeezed him. "Jason?"

"What?" I'd never heard him use that angry tone. It wasn't like earlier when I burned his hand and he yelled at me, or the way he would speak to Percy whenever the guy said something stupid.

"St-Stop talking like that." My teeth clattered and I squirmed, feeling the space in my pants become uncomfortable. "You're turning me on."

It's okay. The sound Jason just made—I'm not sure if it was really human, either. His clinch around me relaxed; maybe a little more stunned than pitying, and I took the advantage to lean further into him until Jay was stumbling with my weight. My erection pressed up against me tightly, and unintentionally it was pressing up against _him._

He ran his knuckles down my back, drawing out a soft moan from my lips.

"You done?" Percy asked flatly. At first, I thought he was talking to me. Then Jason's body tensed warily, and I could _feel_ him glaring. The taxi drivers had left. Frank and Percy stood on either side of us, trying to make it look like two guys making out on the street was the most casual thing ever. The girls must have gone inside because they were nowhere to be seen.

Taking in a deep breath, I relinquished my hold and knew Jay wouldn't let me walk any further than arm distance. His grip was tight over mine, demeanor melancholy and stiff.

"We're done," I replied, voice just as derisive. My palms were sweaty, but Jay's grip was so tight I could only wipe one.

Jay was moody before, but now he was all-out irritated. I was tempted to ask Frank what had happened in the other taxi, but the son of Mars looked especially nervous and antsy. We walked up the cement steps and froze.

The building had to be at least twelve stories tall, painted a romantic shade of red. The gates were dark as charcoal, delicate and wiry and mostly for decoration. For a regular mortal, maybe it would be sturdy enough to keep thieves away, but seven demigods could crumple it like paper. Limestone brick walls surrounded the area, and a bridge literally arched over a koi pond toward the door.

Also, if our lives weren't anymore pathetic, twin statues of a naked _baby_ Cupid stood at opposite ends of the pond in some "artistic" pose, standing on one chubby leg and salaciously aiming their arrows. I looked lower, then turned to Percy.

"You think his penis is that small in reality?" I asked.

Percy's eyebrows scrunched together. "Well…they're gods. They can probably…uh, make it bigger? Or…smaller..."

Frank made a sound. "You're under a love spell and you really think it's smart to debate the size of his…?"

"Of course." I nodded sagely and twitched, watching Jason's face morph until there was a bit of amusement in his eyes. "And it wasn't me who insulted him. It was—" I stopped myself, then pulled forward. "Anyway, onward to celebrity status French housing!"

We were avoiding the fact that Piper was the one who provoked Eros. She was already miserable and blaming herself, so there was no point in rubbing salt on the wound. It was hard on her; looking at us with uneasy eyes That being said, I could _feel_ the tension between Jay and me slip away.

Besides. If the lush garden didn't suddenly make the four of us feel out of place, then the inside of the complex certainly did. The carpet had an intricate design. It was a royal shade of purple with gold lacing from one end of the room to the other. The girls were waiting for us by the elevator, looking equally dazzled by the chandeliers that hung and even the music that played. Piper was the only one unfazed, like she'd grown up around it all her life.

And duh. She did.

"Most of these are apartments," she explained, and we all stepped into the elevator, pressed up against this blond teen listening to his iPod. I could have sworn he looked at me with a blinding smile, but Piper kept talking. "My dad rented out the condo on the top floor. He's been here since May."

"Wow," Annabeth said in a quiet murmur.

Even the _elevator_ was nice. The walls were so clean that I could see myself for the first time since the ship. My hair stuck up in more odd ends than usual, face a little puffy from being buried in Jason's shoulder in the past few minutes, and hand in Jason's iron grip. He looked good. Cropped blond hair, an air of authority in the way he held himself, and…dismal eyes. While I stared at the mirror, he stared at _me._

You know how I just spent ten minutes ogling the lobby?

The condo was so much better.

"_Wow_," Annabeth said again, and this time she looked even more impressed.

The floors were dark, polished and wooden. The moment Piper opened the door we were greeted with the crevasse known as the living room, which had a giant plush sectional couch with matching pillows. Half the living room wall was overtaken by a giant plasma screen TV and a hilariously tiny table that held a Blu-Ray player and a set of DVDs that I assumed were Tristan McLean's greatest accomplishments or something like that. Obscure pieces of art hung on the wall. The kitchen looked like it belonged in a Five-Star Restaurant.

That was as far as I got with looking at my surroundings. Suddenly I felt out of place in my grimy jeans and Camp Halfblood shirt. The last place I'd stepped into that was this luxurious was Midas's mansion and I'd been too upset about Festus to care. Before that…_nada. _My mother and I lived in a small apartment where I couldn't even _remember_ if we had a TV.

Suddenly the fact my girl-best friend and I came from the opposite ends of the economic totem pole was a very blaring fact. I couldn't help but twitch. Our godly parents were married. You'd think the one that worked hard would get the better end of the deal.

"So how come _my_ apartment," Percy said flatly, his voice breaking through our stun, "has my eighty-year-old neighbor swimming in the pool on an inflatable kiddy tube?"

"Because Tristan McLean isn't your father." Struggling for a smile, I elbowed him in the ribcage and received a snicker.

Piper shifted uncomfortably under our gazes and walked through the place like she'd lived here for years. There was no doubt; Tristan McLean's condo beat the Aphrodite Cabin's Malibu-Barbie decorations any day. She raided the fridge, grabbed an apple, and looked to us from the kitchen.

All of us were too stunned to move. Like, who was gonna be the kid who left the mudprint on the nicely polished floor?

"He's going to be filming all day," she explained. A sour look came on her face, and I made note to ask her how the phone call went. "I told the front desk I was his daughter and they gave me the key. So…we should be able to go out, do our business and…_hopefully_ find Cupid."

Hopefully it would be that easy. Hazel spoke up, stepping forward uneasily. "So…how is this going to work?" She seemed to be taking in the room more delicately than all of us, probably estimating how much everything was worth in here.

"We shouldn't stay for more than a few days. Can't risk it." Annabeth hesitantly let go of Percy's hand and started for the kitchen. Piper nodded in agreement, though she looked really reluctant.

As it turned out, there was a master bedroom and a spare bedroom. Piper's eyes widened when she saw it—screw that, all of our eyes did. There was a freaking _water bed_, with pretty bedding, fluffy carpeting, and a big chest with an intricate design. On the dressers were pictures of Beauty Queen as a little kid and her dad, like this room was meant for her. The mattress was big enough to hoard a small army.

Kidding. It was enough for three people, maybe.

"Uh," Percy started in a gentlemanly way, rubbing his neck, "The girls can take the room and we'll settle into the living room. Jason, you and Leo can feel free to have the couch." Everyone nodded in agreement. Except for me, who was confused as _heck. _

"There's enough room for all of us on the ground," I pointed out. When I moved, Jason's hand jerked against mine a little.

Speaking of which, he looked uncomfortable, his cheeks staining red and I realized that yes, I was _definitely_ missing something. I blinked, and Jason's face stretched uncomfortably. "It's…a _Lust_ Arrow, right?"

Lust. _Lust. _"O-Oh." I gulped. "But that doesn't mean—" This would've been a good time to shut up. I spent the first night dealing with the arrow in the fetal position with my head hazy. I would be out of my mind thinking Jay wouldn't insist on being beside me. In my sleep. _Gods_, this was worse than I thought.

"The point is," Piper said, raising her voice to be heard among the obvious awkwardness, "we have a place to stay. And we should find Cupid as soon as possible to get the spell lifted from Leo. Before he goes insane again."

"Which he's _not_." Jason squeezed my hand for emphasis, but it only made me feel like a puppy on a leash.

Trust me, when I say there is no end to this house. Only for the likes of Tristan McLean, the place looked like a cross between a sweet bachelor pad and a house meant for _two. _ I marveled the intricate designs, the neat patterns on the wallpaper and heck, even the nice sets of shoes that were sitting on the doorstep, but I couldn't help but feel out of place in _all _of this.

Piper McLean—Beauty Queen, to say the least—lived like a freaking _Princess. _The way she moved around the place like it was no big deal, you would think she was walking into the Mess Hall.

We set our things down and stretched limbs like we were kids that finally arrived to their spring break destination. I hummed, feeling as my spine unwound and fought the temptation to fall onto the couch. Instead, my eyes fell to Jay, taking in the lovely image of blond hair and blue eyes. His arms extended over his shoulders, and an inch of firm stomach met my eye. Without even thinking, I licked my lips.

Jason was well-toned from years of camp. Pun-included, he was a super-charged battery with maybe 2% metal coating. The rest of it was taut muscle—or well, as taut as a person our age could be. It was only an inch of skin—maybe two, but the way he moved made every bit of fleshed out skin surge with him.

I wondered how many rounds of sex Jay could go.

"Dammit," I shouted loudly. Unintentionally. Half the room jumped, surprised by my outburst. Jason's eyes turned my way and I sighed loudly. "Nothing."

"You…sure?" His ears singed a bashful shade of red. His too-perfect eyebrows pinched together for the millionth time that day, shadow overcoming his features and—

Oh, _sure_—let the dazzling hot guy indulge my other happy boner. You know how many times I've had to deal with Leo Jr. myself in the past two days because of this?!

Uh. Not that you needed to—you know what, never mind.

"W…We should go find Cupid. The sooner the better, right?" I asked. Shoving away my first instinct to shy away from Jason, I ended up rocking between both feet. Sure, I looked pretty stupid before, but now it was downright ridiculous. I turned to the rest of our friends, who were fortunately getting used to this twitchiness that came with me and this arrow.

I wished I could actually _feel _it. Like, if it were still wiggling around on my forehead as a dart. When Percy and Jason described the arrows before, they acted as though it were an evil presence. And it…sorta was. I still had my freewill. For the most part.

Except no, my dick was definitely telling me it was the king. (It was this sort of psychic-link I'd gained since being shot. I call it—_my penis is an asshole._)

"You're grinding your teeth." Jason nudged me in the arm.

"What? Oh." I looked between all of them, who were patiently waiting for me to say something else. "Uh…same groups as last time?"

"Sounds good." Of course, there was no way Percy would ever have problems with that. He wrapped a hand around Annabeth's and grinned goofily. _Woe is me_—I'm not going to be able to kick his ass and wipe off that handsome smile until we get this whole arrow shit figured out.

To my surprise (_really though_, this should stop taking me off guard), Jason grabbed hold of my hand as it was the most normal thing. My face heated up to the point I smelled hairs burning and he smiled indifferently.

"My dad'll be back at midnight, so we should meet up again before he arrives. That way he doesn't get suspicious." Piper's gaze fell to everyone, but they lingered longest between Jay and me. "Does that sound okay?"

The thing is, seven is just a suckish number. Especially if you're an emotional teenager wishing for all that romantic-y stuff. It was weird the time before when we went off as groups and everyone paired off, then left me as the odd person out. It was…lonely. Like instead of being a third wheel, I was actually a seventh. That was a feeling _no one_ should have to deal with.

I moved a little bit, feeling Jason sway with me and forced a grin her way. "C'mon, Princess Peach. Luigi and I can't find the lovey-dovey Bowser without you."

Jason made a noise. "Did you just call us plumbers?"

"I called us badasses." Making a sound of my own, I looked toward Piper again, who held onto my words with surprise. "_All of us_."

Good. That got a smile out of her and a kiss on the cheek for me.

**xxx**

Night had fallen by the time we reached Paris. When we left the complex, the sun had officially said goodbye behind the clouds and the moon, and streetlights illuminated the trail before us. We agreed to meet up in an hour and not stray too far. At least I _think_ so—Hazel had this gushy look in her eyes that made Frank blush and Percy and Annabeth were rocking back and forth and I think even giggling. Percy had mumbled something about _anniversary_, so who knew.

Even though I _think_ we smoothed things over with Piper, there was still a foot or two of distance as she walked ahead of us. We weren't sure how we were going to find Cupid again, but if we were able to the first time, we'd be able to find him a second time…uh. Right?

"Hopefully my boner for _you_ won't overpower that whole unresolved sexual tension-y vibe Eros gives me," I grumbled. Fortunately, Jason was the only one who heard that. Piper was busy stopping locals here and there—but she was starting to blush every time a French boy looked her over.

Not that I could blame her—no matter how Piper tried to hide it, she was still incredibly gorgeous. With Jason next to her, the Love Birds were going to be a power couple as big as Percy and Annabeth. Unfortunately in my case, that was going to get annoying twice as fast.

You know, if Jason finally stopped doting on me.

"Is that the arrow talking or you?" Jason interrupted my thoughts.

"What?" I looked at him.

Now that it was just the three of us, it was a little easier to relax. Jason still refused to let go of my hand, but for some reason it became more of a comfort and less of a prisoner-of-Jason thing. It reminded me of the three of us on our quest again before everything got complicated..

In the streets of Paris, the lights caught Jason's demeanor. They highlighted the shadows of his face and accentuated the sheen eyes. Warmth flickered in his orbs, pulling my attention in better than before. It was always there; since day one, but it'd been misplaced under manic panic and concern. He smiled a little, red fluttering in his cheeks naturally.

"What…you just said. You've done a lot of weird things since being shot. Even your sense of humor is a little weird." A blonde eyebrow rose in the air, suspicious, but mostly amused. For some reason, I couldn't help but blush. Jason swayed his arm, making it very aware for the both of us this hand-holding was an organic thing.

I rolled my eyes, hoping smoke wasn't coming out of my ears. "I would _hope_ me kissing you would be out of the ordinary, Grace."

Jason drummed his fingers over my knuckles. He shook his head as though the comment didn't faze him, then spoke again. "You just…get this look on your face. Like you're focused on one of your inventions. I know it's probably mostly the arrow, but…"

"But what?"

He shrugged, quickly looking away. I couldn't tell for sure, but it looked like the color of his face had changed again. His other hand was tucked in his pocket like it'd been all day. Jason's lips contorted until it wasn't a smile anymore and he looked toward the trail we were walking. To Piper.

Before I could read into that and write it off as Lovebirds being _Lovebirds_, Jason turned back, full force, and stared me straight in the eye. His demeanor suddenly changed again, this big, content smile on his face that made my heart do somersaults.

"It's just nice. You're always smirking or making a comment about something, so I like it when you look at me that way. Even if it's Cupid-induced." Jason shrugged again. He pulled his hand out of his pocket and ran it through his hair. Not that the last part registered as well in my head.

Jason first and foremost was my best friend. His first comment when he found out about my fire was a cheesy _joke_ to make me feel better. I'd never had a friend longer than a few days before I was running away again, so it used to surprise me how after our quest, both Piper and he stayed at my side. He always came to me when he got a new memory. When he had a problem. When he knew I had a problem before _I_ knew I had a problem.

That feeling swelled in my stomach; something that had to do with the arrow whenever I had the impulsive need to jump onto Jason, but this time it was different. There was a mixture of something else in there, like fireballs tangoing up my ribcage and dancing around in the tip of my throat. When the impulse to kiss Jason wedged through my head, it was just that—I would think _'kiss' _and suddenly I was in the aftermath of it, staring at Jay's swollen and wet lips and looking at the bewilderment in his eyes.

This time instead of it being an urge, it was a gesture—little hands under my skin, pushing at my spine to close the space between us and make us intimate. Like Eros was whispering in my ear and guiding me forward—_Kiss him. Hold him. Tell him—_

I whirled around in case Eros really _was_ somewhere around me. No such luck. Behind me were the stars, more streetlights, and civilians Beauty Queen had already spoken to. My hand slipped out of Jason's grip from my own paranoia and I—I felt scared. Only worse, because my arrow-disiac'd emotions were driving me up the _wall_.

"C'mon," I murmured, and this time I didn't take a moment or two to find out his reaction.

"Hey, Leo—what are you—"

Snatching him by the hand, I torpedoed through the streets until Piper was in our line of sight again. She was in the middle of talking to an older lady, who looked impressed that someone not-native was fluent in the language. Before Piper could finish her conversation, I snatched her up by the other hand and did what I'd done before and linked their hands together. There was a somewhat-manly squeak and a Piper-esque squeak.

"_Leo!" _ They shouted my name in unison.

I turned around so we faced each other and found both of them bright red. Glaring, but definitely bright red. Jason fidgeted, nervously looking between the both of us and Piper was mortified.

"Please," I said wryly, then crossed my arms to look tough. "Don't stop being Love Birds on _my_ account, lady and germ."

This time, Jason scowled. Yeah—I knew my track record by now. Every time I tried to get away from him this scowl-thing kinda happened. Fortunately that wasn't the entire case this time.

"I'll stand at an arm distance. That way, if I need you, you'll be right there. But…seriously." I shifted awkwardly between my feet and shoved my hands in my pockets. "We all know that you two are going to get together, so don't act like you're surprised that I did this."

By now I was aware that Jason wanted to strangle me for my apparent stupidity. He turned his head to Piper, who stared at their intertwined hands delicately with a meek expression, then melted. The scowl on Jason's face disappeared in favor of fascination and then, they looked at each other.

Jason and Piper locked eyes like all the romantic protagonists in every movie when they've come to realize something (cue the camera dramatically whirling on the background) and broke away shyly. Jay's gaze narrowed at me and he drew in a breath. "An arm distance. If I look over my shoulder and you're not there—"

"Then you have the right to zap me and I'll be Piper's slave for a week," I finished. I rolled my hand and my eyes. "Yeah. Whatever."

He looked like he wanted to say something else, but Piper tugged on his arm. Much more fluidly than I could ever do. She stood on her toes and whispered something in his ear. All of a sudden the tension in his stature disintegrated and his expression diminished. They stood next to each other like the beautiful couple they were, and I could feel the embers in my chest falling flat. Cold.

Piper smiled beautifully my way, her kaleidoscope eyes sparkling in the moonlight graciously. "Let's get going."

I nodded, unwilling to look either one in the eye.

This time, I staggered behind them, looking everywhere but to my two best friends in the world. True to my word I never went more than an arm's distance away, but Jason still looked over his shoulder like I'd make a run for it.

Staring at the way Jason's hand wrapped firmly around Piper's dainty one, I could feel the jealousy thrumming through me—_pulling _me into an irritation.

That _wasn't_ my own feeling. I could never hate someone that I loved like a sister. It was a terrifying reaction all caused by the arrow and I knew it would be dangerous if I ever indulged on it. But that wasn't the only thing.

I didn't want this; I didn't want what the arrow did to me, even if Jason was okay with coaxing me through it. But _lust_ wasn't the only thing it was bringing. I was falling in love with Jason all over again, and Eros's arrow intended to shout it to the world.

**xxx**


End file.
